Service with a Smile

Volunteer Sam Rice Pours Pure Joy at Resident Tea Parties

June 14, 2024

When Sam Rice lost his mom, Elizabeth, two years ago, he was simply devastated. She’d been his lifelong best friend and inspiration. They’d served together in Haiti as missionaries and, when she fell ill in 2017, he retired from his nursing job at Marian Hall (now Mt. Assisi Place) to care for her full time. When she couldn’t venture out much anymore, Elizabeth enjoyed entertaining at home, welcoming family and friends for tea parties and other small get-togethers.

To fill a bit of the hole her loss left in his life, Sam returned to Mt. Assisi Place as a volunteer in 2023, helping one day a week in Antonia Hall. More recently, he has found a way to keep his mother’s memory alive and to lift the spirits of our Residents at the same time. Twice a month, he hosts elegant tea parties for four guests at a time, using his mother’s treasured tea set and other fancy tableware.

Residents Dana Funk, Connie McKee, Sister JoAnn Knaebel and Sister Barbara Ann Lengvarsky were invited to his most recent tea party by way of special cards he left in their rooms. They gathered over lunch in the Marian Hall third-floor lounge for a multi-course meal of sandwiches, scones, dessert and, of course, tea. Sam was outfitted in black and white as a butler of sorts, setting the scene with soft music, lacy table linens, fresh flowers and good-hearted humor.

As his guests chatted and giggled away a special hour, Sam tended to their every whim, topping off their tarts with a special berry reduction he’d prepared the night before and laying out an array of teas and jams. “I’m happy to say I tried them all,” offers Sister Barbara Ann as she finishes a scone. “They’re delicious!”

He goes to great lengths to prepare everything and to haul all he needs back and forth between his home and our hilltop. But it’s all worth it, he says, when he sees the smiles that our Residents share with him and each other in between bites. “It’s a wonderful way to honor my mother and to treat the Residents to something special,” Sam says, choking back tears. “She had all these fancy things. Surely, someone should be enjoying them.”

Keep an eye out — you never know when you might find an invitation in your room.