Ask 98-year-old Ginger Goldhammer to name a few of her long life's highlights, and the answer can take quite some time.
There was kissing former President Bill Clinton - three times; escaping the Nazis in World War II; coming to the United States with her husband, a concentration-camp survivor; beating cancer; and living through a heart attack.
But the one thing the Buckhead resident is most proud of is her patriotism. Hungarian-born Goldhammer, a die-hard fan of her adopted country, has demonstrated her support for the United States by racking up 34 years of volunteer service with the Atlanta VA Medical Center in Decatur.
"I'm probably the oldest volunteer in the whole wide world - no kidding - but I can still do something for America," said Goldhammer, through still thickly accented English. "I feel very good about that."
Two days a week, Goldhammer is escorted from her retirement home on Peachtree Road to the Clairmont Road hospital, where she spends four to five hours pitching in with paperwork, filing and other office duties. Most of her time is now dedicated to the operating suite, but she has also had stints working in the lab, escorting patients around the facility and working in the office.
"I used to be very active, but I cannot do any other work but sitting," Goldhammer said. "So I'm copying things, clipping things together, whatever they ask me to do. It's very interesting."
Goldhammer gave up escorting patients around after a bout with cancer left her weak. And she had to give up the lab work because congestive heart failure kept her from wearing a protective mask. But the OR was a good fit.
"Ginger is an icon in the operating room," said Michael Covington, who has been the OR nurse manager for six years. "To be 98 and have her mental capacity and still be able to do everything she does is wonderful. She has been the only volunteer I've worked with who's been this faithful. She calls me if she's feeling bad and can't be here. She's become our family."
Hospital employees have adopted Goldhammer. "My staff and others from volunteer services often have dinner with her," Covington said. "Some of the staff will bring their children over to see her. If she comes in here feeling bad, we always check her out, take her blood pressure."
When Goldhammer had a heart attack on the job, Covington's crew tended to her until she could be transported to Emory Hospital. "And she didn't want to go!" he said.
Goldhammer credits the VA center with saving her sanity. The busy facility, where about 2,000 outpatients a day arrive for treatment, put her back in the mainstream of life.
"When my husband died in 1966, I had one wish: to die," said Goldhammer, who was living in Rome, Ga., at the time. "I came to Atlanta and stayed with an ex-sister-in-law, but I didn't go to the movies or anywhere. But I decided if I was going to do something, it would be something for America because this country was so good to us. I went to the hospital to volunteer and they trained me and put me to work. I still feel very good about being needed."
- This article is a reprint from The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.