Impact: Your support keeps Carole Ogden shopping and self-reliant

Nov 18

Sometimes a little support is all it takes to keep our seniors self reliant. For Carol Ogden, 81, that support is the H.O.M.E. shopping bus.

Our bus has been serving the Lakeview building where Ogden lives with weekly trips to and from a nearby Jewel-Osco supermarket for years. In fact, the service was featured in an ad that attracted Ogden to the building when she moved there around 2014.

“I said, that’s for me,” Ogden recalls. “Independence is very important. I think you live longer to some extent when you know that you are self reliant.”

A Philadelphia native who moved to the south suburbs in 1967 with her now ex-husband, Ogden raised her family in Hazelcrest and later Homewood, which she loved: “It was a gorgeous little town,” she recalls. “Lovely homes, good schools and facilities.”

Ogden worked as a property manager and other real estate jobs for years. She moved to the city in 2000 to take advantage of all it had to offer. “I was very active,” she says. “I did all the cultural stuff: the Art Institute, theater, symphony and the opera.”

Lately though, she’s been happy to slow down a bit, which has made the bus even more helpful. “I go every week for groceries,” Ogden says. “I have family nearby, but I don’t want to rely on my family for what I consider basic life necessities like going grocery shopping.”

Staying independent is important, Ogden says: “I know how to take care of myself. Services provided by groups like H.O.M.E. make it possible for me to be independent.

Ogden is not only a customer of H.O.M.E., she’s also a supporter. “When I started giving, I was already in my 50s. At that age, you know you’re going to be old someday, if you’re lucky enough to live that long,” Ogden recalls with a laugh. “I thought H.O.M.E. was such a good idea!”

This blog post is part of our Voices from H.O.M.E. impact series. The series focuses on the stories of those you have helped to live independently, how your support helped, and their memories of the place we call home, Chicago. Watch for the stories all month long as we prepare for Giving Tuesday 2019.

We hope you will like and share them! The idea behind #GivingTuesday is to kickoff the holiday-giving season, in the same way that Black Friday and Cyber Monday kickoff the holiday-shopping season. H.O.M.E. has also joined the #ILGive movement to celebrate Giving Tuesday.

Will you mark your calendar for December 3, 2019 to give to make a big impact for seniors in 2020? You can follow us on Facebook for updates, or sign up to be an #ILGive champion by fundraising for H.O.M.E.!

Or, give today.

To find out more about H.O.M.E. and to provide support to low-income seniors, please visit our website or like us on Facebook!

Do you want updates and tips in your inbox every week? Remember to subscribe to Senior Moments from H.O.M.E.

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Brendan Short