A NEW DAY WITH Lisa Ferretti

– I live in Stamford, about 20 minutes by car to our office location in Norwalk. Having two school age children, it is nice to know that I can be home as quickly as possible if need be. Stamford is like a mini Manhattan so it is very busy place. I’ve lived there all my life and will probably never move away as I love my city.

For two years now I have been volunteering at the Stamford Hospital on Monday nights. I am part of the Tender Touch team which offers patients the gift of touch. I go to patients of all situations and cases. Some are very sick, some have just come out of surgery, some are pregnant or in ICU and about to pass away. My favorite department is the Mental Illness wing as those people are pushed to the side because others are afraid to go in there. Those people need touch and communication just as any other patient in that hospital and they look for me every single week.

The feeling that I leave with every Monday evening after working with the patients is more rewarding than anything that I have ever done. This is my passion, and my quest is to make as many people as I can in my lifetime feel special and to know that they are not alone.

I am also part of the NODA team which is the “No one dies alone” program at the hospital. I have been trained to sit with people who have 72 to 24 hours to live that have no family or friends. I offer comfort to these people at their dying hour. It is very intense but once again an incredible gift to carry.

At work I am inspired by the faith and trust that my colleagues and bosses have toward me to do whatever task I am given. To see their smiles and know that they had a nice time at, let’s say, a holiday party or a successful meeting makes it worth all the effort. Knowing that things went well in the end and all my hard work paid off motivates me to work even harder.

I ended up working for CellMark 20 years ago when we were still “Perkins Goodwin”. I got the job through a temp agency and my title started out as front desk receptionist. I had a switch board to answer with more lines than I could even imagine. There was no voice mail, no direct lines, no scanners, and no internet. The funny thing was when I started the job, about a couple of weeks into it I said to myself that I would stay at this job for a year and then move on. Well, it’s been 20 years now…