Lucille Silva has served for 26 years as a “Pink Lady” volunteer at Doctors Hospital  of Manteca.
“Lucille is a wonderful lady, a great person and should be celebrated,” said her co-volunteer Al Weissman who usually works the front counter outside the gift shop.
Pinky Lady is the term of endearment used to describe the women volunteers with the Doctors Hospital of Manteca Auxiliary.
Silva said she started out volunteering pm a part-time basis at the hospital in 1990. She had worked as a teller and a bank officer  in the loan department of the former Central Valley Bank in downtown Manteca on the southwest corner of  Yosemite and Maple avenues. She had been hired at Central Valley Bank by then manager Esther Thomas.
Lucille and her husband William have two daughters Kathleen and Linda Kukesh. Linda now lives in Ripon and works in Dr. Daryl Dutter’s medical offices.  Kathleen passed away at the age of 59. She has four grown sons and two adult granddaughters.
Silva volunteers mostly in the hospital gift shop. She enjoys doing crossword puzzles and time reading.
“I enjoy people and I get to see a lot of my old customers who come into the gift shop,” she said. “It has been good for me  it keeps me out of the house and keeps me on my toes.”
As a young girl she remembers always admiring the nurses she met and the care they gave their patients.  
“When I retired that was my chance to help by donating my free time, be useful and try to be helpful at the hospital,” Silva said.
The volunteer duty developed into three to four days a month which included being on the floor, OB, front desk and the gift shop.
“My favorite was the OB Department seeing the parents with their new baby and putting together charts for the nurses that consisted of some 30 printed forms.” she said. “There were always changes made, new forms, added or deleted.
Silva said that over the years she was involved in a myriad of other duties including “Daffodil Days,” selling bouquets of flowers with the proceeds going to cancer research. 
One highlight in her tenure came in 2002 when she was chosen to be a delegate to a conference in San Diego.
 “I hope I can continue to give my time a while longer at Doctors Hospital.” Siva said. “(Being a Pink Lady) has taught me how to free up people as well as assist in their needs.”
 
To Contact Glenn Kahl, email gkahl@mantecabulletin.com.