“the best thing that’s ever happened to me in my life” | va poplar bluff health care | veterans affairs

Marty Lynch, John J. Pershing VAMC Home Health Care Nurse, knows that caring for Veterans can involve more than simply assessing health needs. The cold, winter day she knocked on Harry

Eichler’s door and he opened it wearing coveralls and gloves he’d slept in the night before, she knew something was wrong. The eighty-nine year-old explained his gas stove was broken, and he

had no wood for his wood stove. Lynch sprang into action, and ordered a trailer of wood for Mr. Eichler, to address his immediate need for heat.  Then she contacted the local Elks Lodge,

and arranged for a brand new gas stove to be donated and installed in his home a short time later. Mr. Eichler lives on a shoestring budget, so in December, when he received a bag full of

groceries through the John J. Pershing VAMC’s “Care and Share” program, he was very grateful.  However – what to do with the whole ham that was included?  He couldn’t eat it all at one time.

  Lynch cooked the ham for Eichler, and froze it in small portions.  He was still eating it in March, when his birthday rolled around. Mr. Eichler says of Marty, “She is an angel in

disguise. Some people talk, and some people do.  Marty is a doer.  I’m forever grateful for Marty.  She saved my life from misery and has helped me in so many ways.”  Recalling the day his

home was once again heated, he says, “That was the best thing that’s ever happened to me in my life.”