I’m ecstatic a nursing home ombudsman shared this conference flyer with me today. We’ve been communicating now for over six years, and during that time, we’ve had lows, then understanding, and also some wins. She said the topic and issues for this upcoming conference being hosted by VOYCE came up, in part, as a result of our many conversations about gaps in care for nursing home residents needing medical care. There’s been a lot of water under this bridge.

VOYCE is a long-term care ombudsman organization based in metro St. Louis, where I have a family member in a federally subsidized nursing home. Its mission is “to educate and empower individuals and their families for quality living across the continuum of long-term care.” They’ve always been responsive to me, and for that, I’m grateful.

And given all that is going on with the absolute political and economic chaos in my country, I could not have received a better message today.

Sometimes what you do as an advocate counts. This is true for me. I hope it’s also true for people who work for groups like VOYCE, who get too little credit and thanks.

In life, you rarely get the luck or privilege of knowing when your advocacy pays off, but that is not why you do it. You do it because it is the right thing to do, even if you lose, over, and over, and over, and over again. If it’s right, and you are firm and do not back down, you have found an unshakable power. Tapping into that takes time, and lots of trial and error. But it’s real.