Jeffrey McClain Jones

Alice's Friendship Bench Jeffrey McClain Jones

At seventy-two, Alice Mertens is not finished with life. She is starting a new one. A new mission. Alice is part of the first class of Friendship Bench peer counselors at a local hospital. She will meet folks in the shade, hear their troubles and cheer for their triumphs.

Never mind that she has no grandkids, Alice and the Friendship Bench in this Midwestern city are following the inspiration of an organization in Zimbabwe. Grannies there sat on benches in public parks and listened to the traumas and trials of people who survived wars and famine. And they offered hope to people struggling to survive their daily lives.

In Alice's town, people have survived the pandemic and are ready to get out and get together. At least to sit on a bench outside. She offers consolation and hope that she has absorbed from her years of faith and her personal prayer life.

The genesis of the Friendship Bench in Africa was a lack of mental health professionals. In the United States, there are certainly more counselors than in Zimbabwe. But there are people in Alice's city who are shy about meeting with psychologists or psychiatrists, even if some of these folks would surely benefit from professional treatment.

At home, Alice and her husband Randal are getting back to their life as it was before the pandemic. Even more, they are opening to new opportunities. Retired but not resigned.