Lucille V. Newsome "Granny" and Stephen Newsome

By Ralna Pearson

Stephen Newsome is one of an estimated 44.4 million caregivers in the United States, according to the National Alliance for Caregiving and AARP.

Since December 2005, when she fell out of her bed at a hospital, he has been caring for his 78-year-old grandmother full-time.

“I should’ve sued,” she declared.

Lucille Newsome, or “Granny” as her grandson calls her, has Alzheimer’s disease, yet is full of feistiness.

Stephen Newsome hides his grandmother’s two weaknesses, cigarettes and candy, in a locked safe, so she can’t get to them. He rations out both to her each day.

She holds out her hand. Newsome tells her to say what she wants, though he already knows the answer. He leaves the living room and returns with a pack of cigarettes.

“Where’s your lighter?” he asks her.

She pulls it out of her pocket. “I sleep with that,” she answers mischievously.

Laughing and having fun is what they do all day, Newsome said.

He says his “Granny” is the reason for everything he does, including helping others in Meldrim.

Three to four months ago he started the Meldrim Community Service Program. Those ordered to do community service and those who just want to volunteer, sign up to assist the elderly with yard work and other chores around their homes.

For Newsome, the program is simply an extension of who he is. He’s been helping those in the community for years. He credits his grandparents who raised him with instilling in him a desire to help others.

He owns K9 Fencing Systems, an underground fencing company. However, he is unable to work most days because he is caring for his grandmother round-the-clock, seven days a week.

“I stay home and eat four times a day. That’s why I’ve gained so much weight,” Newsome shared, rubbing his stomach.

He prepares so many meals to assure that Lucille Newsome eats.

When not feeding Granny or rationing out her cigarettes and chocolate, he’s making her coffee or tea and in the afternoon taking her and a few other elderly ladies for a ride around the neighborhood.

“What are we doing today,” he asks her.

“Ride golf carts,” she answered immediately, smiling.

And literally that’s what they do. Newsome says he gets some “ole ladies” together on the golf cart and they just go around visiting and riding, just to get them out of the house.

“Hey! Don’t you call me no old lady,” Granny protests.

The program has been a huge success.

Henrietta Garvin, 62, raves about the program.

“That little guy, he just made my day,” she exclaimed.

Newsome and another man performing community service came by Garvin’s house to trim tree branches and bushes. She sat on her porch and watched the men, just for the joy of it.

She hadn’t been on her porch for more than five minutes in a year and a half, which is when her husband died. She has neuropathy in her legs, which prevents her from being able to walk much. Garvin mostly sits in a chair all day watching television, and struggling around the house to do chores and keep herself up.

“They were just lovely gentleman. It was just like you had two of your sons over,” she shared.

Garvin said that the two men worked from start to finish, and Newsome spent a few minutes chatting with her after they completed all the work.

Due to all the branches being cut back, Garvin explained, “I’ve got more sunshine coming in, not just from the sun, I’ve got the sunshine in my heart.”

She describes the day she met Newsome as a “miracle.”

“That was inspired by God. I told my friend, Kathy, that God put a miracle in my life today.”
The program fills a widespread need she stressed because many seniors cannot do the work, nor pay someone to do it for them. And for Garvin, requesting help is out of the question, as well.

“I won’t ask. I grew up that way,” she explained.

She said she had been depressed before Newsome’s arrival and yes, she cries sometimes from loneliness, but that day the men came has stuck with her ever since.

“It’s been a big inspiration to me to just have that one day,” she declared.

On another day, Newsome and another man removed a chimney cover and cut a branch that had been lying on the house of Violet Buckner and her husband.

“He’s an unusual man,” Buckner said.

Her grandson and Newsome were good friends. And according to Buckner, Newsome took home economics in high school so he could learn the skills necessary for running a home and family. Not many young men do that and few choose to take care of their grandmothers, according to Buckner.

In fact, four in 10 caregivers are men, according to research by the National Alliance for Caregiving and AARP.

Newsome and Garvin encourage and challenge others to start similar programs in their communities.

David Zittrauer, Effingham County senior probation officer, explains that any individual wanting to start a community service program should contact the probation office. They will have to complete paperwork and provide a site supervisor. The Effingham County State Court has to approve the program.

For defendants ordered to community service, their access to transportation and place of residence determine where their assignment. Currently, the Meldrim Community Service Program is the only one in the southern part of the county.

Judge Ronald Thompson said that the program was approved because of the shortage of community service sites in that end of the county.

Zittrauer added that court-appointed community service is sporadic. Some programs may receive five people one month and none the next and their hours are just as unstable.

But he admits that the plight millions of elderly citizens face in this country cannot be overcome with a community service program. Newsome calls the assistance senior citizens receive from the government “terrible.” They are left to fend for themselves, he added.

According to the Administration on Aging, the median income of those age 65 and older was $21,102 for men and $12,080 for women. Almost 10 percent of the elderly were below the poverty level in 2004. And 6.7 percent were classified as near-poor.

About 30 percent of older Americans not living in institutional housing lived alone. And half of women over age 75 live by themselves. In 2003 Social Security benefits accounted for over a third of elderly income at 39 percent. Earnings accounted for 25 percent, with assets and pension comprising a third of the income. The Social Security Administration states that the average Social Security benefit was $1,007 in June 2006 for retirees.

Newsome says has written to Gov. Sonny Perdue, U.S. Rep. John Barrow, state lawmakers Jack Hill and Buddy Carter and Jon Burns about the need for greater government assistance for the elderly and caregivers.

In the meantime, he will continue to care for Granny—putting her in a nursing home is not an option.

Asked how long he will stay with her full-time, he shrugged.

“This is her life,” he answered. And he refuses to budge.

Reporter’s note: Newsome has since found someone to care for Granny three days a week, allowing him to work on those days.