Honoring a wife’s legacy of care

Leonard Barasch once got some wise advice from a friend.

When work slows down, volunteering should speed up.

Leonard, a tailor, still works part-time and doesn’t plan on stopping the craft he learned from his grandfather while growing up in Alabama. But he scaled back on work within the last decade to help care for his wife, Jane Rae, who had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. After Jane’s death in 2020, a grieving Leonard decided he better get busy.

Good thing was, he knew exactly where to go.

Missouri Baptist Medical Center became a familiar place to Leonard after he and his wife moved to St. Louis decades ago. He has family members and friends who work and regularly receive care there. When 50 years of the standing, bending, and stretching required of a tailor caught up with him, he trusted MoBap with the physical therapy that helped relieve his aching back, along with a recent endoscopic examination.

But more than all of that, it was the hospital’s compassionate treatment of Jane that became the catalyst of Leonard’s launch as a Ballas Boutique volunteer.

“They were so nice to my wife, and this is connected to what I do,” Leonard, 72, said. “Helping people.”

Jane was a public health nurse dedicated to helping the underserved. Leonard feels close to her when he’s working in the gift shop, especially when he’s called upon to deliver flowers to areas of the hospital Jane used to frequent.

“The nurses all remember her,” he said.

Some days can feel bittersweet. Most days are just sweet.

“It’s so much fun being there,” Leonard said. “One of the most fun things is when you get a call to deliver balloons or flowers to a new momma and you see the baby. Or, you see a new daddy come in with the older siblings, and they want to buy a gift for their new baby brother or sister.”

A tailor volunteering in the store has provided some unexpected bonuses. It was Leonard’s idea, for example, to roll up T-shirts so they don’t get unfolded and wrinkled.

Presentation matters.

So does staying busy.

“The main thing is, I like to be out with people,” Leonard said. “That makes a big difference, being with people.”

If you have questions about volunteering at the Ballas Boutique, please contact store manager Laurie Childers by phone 314-996-5144 or email. If you are interested in volunteering at the Ballas Boutique, please start by completing a volunteer application here.