Barb Edwards

Barb Edwards was born in Montpelier, Vermont but grew up in South Burlington and has been volunteering in schools and hospitals all around. Ms. Edwards worked in the Taylor Room at Fletcher Allen Hospital for three years and plans to work at the hospital in the near future. The Taylor Room was donated to the hospital when Mr. Taylor died. Mr. Taylor's family had gotten a call that Mr. Taylor had gotten into an accident and needed medical attention. When the Taylor's were there waiting for him to recover, they had nowhere to go because they weren't from Vermont. When Mr. Taylor died, they decided to donate money so the hospital could have the Taylor Room for people to have a place to stay in the morning.

The Taylor Room opened up in April 2007. "The mission of the Taylor Family Hospitality Room is to provide a "home away from home" setting with a caring, supportive environment for families." Ms. Edwards has a brother-in-law who had gotten the H1N1 flu when it first broke out. When he was admitted to the hospital, she wanted to go into the Taylor room, but there were no volunteers, and if there are no volunteers then it gets closed. Soon after, every single Thursday she would volunteer at the Taylor room from 4:00 - 8:00 pm. Ms. Edwards would go to the Taylor room and listen to others' stories and comfort them.

Her fondest memory while volunteering at the Taylor Room was when a family asked her to join their prayer circle. They were upset and devastated because their family member was in an accident, but they said it had brought their family together. Her hardest challenge to overcome was being able to hold herself together for these families because they needed someone to be strong for them. I asked Ms. Edwards what she learned or got from volunteering at the Taylor Room and she said, "Working at the Taylor Room has made me aware of the serious struggles that these families go through and how badly they need a shoulder to cry on."