For Vivian Futscher, volunteering is a major part of her life.

“If I had a job with six figures, it wouldn’t mean as much to me as volunteering,” Futscher said. “It’s what’s in the heart.”

Futscher, 74, of North Buffalo Township, Armstrong County, has been volunteering at several facilities of the Butler Township-based VNA Inpatient Hospice since 2005.

She volunteers about eight to 10 hours per week at the VNA, though that can vary depending on how many patients she is caring for.

Futscher said her preference is working in the program’s nursing homes, saying that she gets a chance to see the needs of many different people.

“I enjoy every minute of it,” Futscher said.

Her husband, Jim, died in 2004.

“That’s when I found so much time on my hands,” Futscher said.

During the first year after her husband’s death, she said she initially would have liked to have died as well, noting that her three living children were well settled in their lives.

“I was ready to go, you know,” Futscher said.

After a year of grieving, she asked God for direction. The same night, she saw an advertisement saying that the VNA needed hospice volunteers. She called the next day and began training.

She does a variety of things, some of which can include reading patients’ mail to them, reading the Bible to them, praying with them, singing them a song or bringing them a treat.

“Anything to bring any comfort, any cheer, any joy to those people,” Futscher said.

She said she always asks if there is anything she can do for them. A few weeks ago, one woman told her that she would love to have pink nail polish. Futscher made sure to bring some the next time she came.

“It’s just little things like that,” Futscher said.

If a patient is really sick, she puts a cold cloth on their forehead, or swabs their mouth or lips.

Sometimes, she said all that is needed is a smile.

“A smile can say a million words,” Futscher said. “A smile in the window of the face is an indication that God is at home in the heart.”

A major part of her visiting with patients can involve discussions about faith, as long as the patients are OK with discussing it.

“I like to know that they are OK with God,” Futscher said.

The most rewarding part of her job is working to make people joyful.

“Just making somebody happy,” Futscher said.

Recently, she was helping a few patients playing bingo and saw one lady getting frustrated. Futscher went over and asked what was wrong, and she pointed out that her shoe was untied and it bothered her. Futscher tied it and the woman was pleased.

Another woman always liked Christmas cookies, but never got her favorite cookie. Futscher asked what her favorite cookies were, and she was able to bring those in. Futscher said she still brings cookies for her.

She said it does not bother her to volunteer at a hospice, where the patients are dying.

“It’s a part of life. We all live in this world so long and there is a time to pass from this life,” Futscher said. “Death is just a part of life.”

She also volunteers a few hours per week at ACMH Hospital in the ambulatory surgery department, and she volunteers when she can with the churches she is affiliated with — the First Church of God in Kittanning and the Ford City First Baptist Church.

“I like to keep myself busy,” Futscher said. “I guess I just have the heart of a volunteer.”

Tammie Cramer, VNA volunteer coordinator, said Futscher has always said it is a blessing to be able to volunteer at the VNA.

“But, really, it is a blessing to our volunteer program to have her in the program,” Cramer said.