Angels in pink

Julie Bocker bustles through the halls of the Brimex clinic, stopping to fix a crooked picture or blow a kiss to a patient. As the current president of the Pink Ladies at ABC Hospital, which runs this clinic for low-income patients in the Observatorio area of Mexico City, she manages 130 fellow volunteers. Joining the Pink Ladies, she says, seemed like the best way to help poor communities just minutes away from her own privileged neighborhood.

Image:Courtesy ABC Hospital

Pink Lady volunteers have been active at ABC Hospital since 1953.

“In Brimex, [we treat] the maid, the gardener, the carpenter, window washers on the street, the people selling things in the market,” says Bocker, 63, whose parents emigrated from Switzerland. “It’s the people who work without benefits.”

The clinic provides healthcare to about 7,000 uninsured local residents. The Pink Ladies serve as doctor-patient liaisons at ABC’s main hospital and at Brimex, which relies on time donated by about a hundred doctors.

“This was a great opportunity to help outside my house,” Julie says. “It helps me feel okay with me and with the country.”

Julie’s mother was also a Pink Lady at ABC Hospital. In 1953, the group started fundraising and facilitating patients’ visits. Over the years, they have also sewn diapers and on occasion have even paid for patient care.

Julie comforts patients by remembering their individual stories. When I toured the clinic with her, Julie asked in Spanish after a patient’s grandmother. With another patient, she spoke German.

Collectively, the current Ladies speak ten different languages. They counsel patients on preventative medicine and give talks in the clinic waiting room, for example cautioning against letting children too close to the stove: many patients have small kitchens, where it’s easy to spill boiling water. Julie knows because she’s visited their homes.

The Ladies help patients in ways that timestrapped nurses and doctors can’t. “We add a warm factor … [that] makes a difference,” said Vicky Silvan, who has volunteered for thirty-two years. “We ask the patients, ‘Is there anything we can do to help you?’ Nine times out of ten they say ‘Yes.’”

While Julie works directly with patients, volunteers like Vicky raise funds for the hospital’s charities. Art fairs, book sales, and other events support causes like the Chemotherapy Fund, which pays for cancer treatment for poor patients. The profi ts from hospital gift shops, where Pink Ladies work as cashiers, fund projects like the state-of-the-art Cancer Center opening this year.

Vicky and longtime friend Edna Baitenmann were the first to raise funds by selling used books. Collectively, they have been volunteering for 85 years.

Edna, wearing lavender cat-eye glasses, says she became a Pink Lady because small favors, like mailing a letter, can make patients more comfortable. Vicky says there are few things more worthy than volunteering as a Pink Lady: “It isn’t just a cutesy-wootsy job. It’s work.”

The Pink Ladies don’t shy away from bringing their work home. Edna once used her native language, and her kitchen, to comfort the Dutch wife of a patient in intensive care.

“I took her to my home for lunch the day after we had a party. With all that leftover food from the party, we gave her food and food and food. She must have thought we ate like rich people. Then we took her to a hotel.”

Julie later added that Edna once let another Dutch patient’s wife stay at her house for a week.

Maybe after decades of volunteering, after the many names and faces, a one-week home-stay just blends into the whole experience. Or, in typical Pink Lady fashion, Edna might have downplayed the episode out of modesty. This is part of their legacy. Following the example of Julie’s mother, the Pink Ladies remain humble, sitting quietly behind a gift shop counter, posting a letter, or coyly denying just how long they have been volunteering their time.

Visit ABC Hospital online at abchospital.com.