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Who We Are: Vivian Ratliff and henrietta Finch
Active seniors keeping involved
Thursday, April 09, 2009
Extras
Henrietta Finch plays the piano during a bible study group inside the Waterford Retirement Community Thursday, April 2, 2009 in Fairfield.
Vivian Ratliff runs a bible study group inside the Waterford Retirement Community Thursday, April 2, 2009 in Fairfield.Fairfield Twp. residents Henrietta Finch and Vivian Ratliff are active in their community.
They volunteer their time to help others, whether it's at a retirement home or the crisis pregnancy center.
They are also 72 and 81 years old, respectively.
Finch volunteers because she enjoys the company of others and she needed to get out of the house.
"My husband passed away in January 2007 and I felt like I needed to do things to get out of the house so I wouldn't go crazy," she said. "I'm still very active and I'm still in good health. And the rest homes and retirement centers, I think they have a need people to volunteer."
Ratliff said she arranges the church service each Sunday for the residents of Heartland of Woodridge in Fairfield because her husband, the Rev. Chester Ratliff, started the work there 25 years ago. She said since he passed away almost 14 years she keeps the service going because the people there love it.
Ratliff said she volunteers to serve Jesus Christ.
"There are so many needy people in the world that I want to do what I can to help. This is what God would have us to do. I want to live my life to bring honor to my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ," she said.
Ratliff got Finch involved with conducting Bible studies at The Waterford, a retirement facility in Fairfield, because she needed help. Ratliff leads the Bible study and Finch plays the piano and sings.
They go to The Waterford weekly, but Finch makes monthly trips to several other retirement facilities around the county, including Birchwood Care Center and Butler County Care Center in Fairfield Twp.
Finch also is a volunteer counselor at the Crisis Pregnancy Center. She volunteers once a week. She used to be a counselor when she and her husband, Nolan, lived in Arkansas.
"A lot of them are teenage girls that aren't married, and most of them are in their mid- to late-teens or early teens sometimes," Finch said.
She also volunteers with a quilting group where they sell quilts and use the profits to make baby quilts, which are donated to the pregnancy center.
Contact this reporter at (513) 755-5112 or mpitman@coxohio.com.
