Quite a few years ago, I was driving to work on a Sunday morning listening to one of my favorite radio shows, “Exceptional Women.” On that day, their featured guest was Jeannie Lindheim, who was a hospital clown. I was fascinated and listened intently to her touching stories of providing visits to hospitalized children. I knew right away that this was something that I wanted to do.
I contacted Jeannie shortly after that and expressed my interest in applying for the next training workshop.
I recall on the first day of the workshop introducing myself and explaining that my inspiration to become a hospital clown came from becoming a new grandmother of two healthy beautiful boys and wanting to give of myself to those not so fortunate.
Something else that I recall from the clown training was how much more information I took home with me than I expected. After the completion of the training I received a call inviting me to join the Troupe. I was crying, and jumping for joy. I remember that Cheryl Lekousi said to me, “We actually think that you’re not a person who wants to be a clown but you are a clown who’s been pretending to be a person all these years. “ Boy did they get me!!! For sure!
After my training and working with experienced clowns for about a year I clowned for another year. I then took a leave from the Troupe for a period of time. But for the years that I have been away from clowning I have always missed it. When I recently contacted Cheryl and pleaded with her, “Take me back, take me back, please take me back. I miss you!’” I was thrilled that I was accepted into a retraining class this past October. It feels soooooooooo good to be back!
I have been a nurse for almost 30 years and care for a diverse population of older patients. l have always incorporated humor in my job with both my patients and my co-workers. So most weren’t surprised when I told them I was going to train to be a hospital clown. I got responses like, “Of course you are!”, “You’ll be good at that!” and of course others who say, “What a wonderful thing to do!”
My clown name is Georgia and is in memory of my father George who was a funny sort of guy himself. I am sometimes called ‘Miss Georgia.” My favorite part of clowning is the smiles, the giggles, the blowing kisses, blowing bubbles, playing the kazoo, reading stories, I could go on and on. As clowns, we get to give these hospitalized children the chance to have a bit of a break from all the chaos that surrounds them for likely most of their day. I get the most incredible, insane, exhilarating, rewarding feeling every time I leave the hospital. Kind of a win/win! I love clowning!
Right now I clown at Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital in Charlestown. My very first night back, the very first child that we visited was non-verbal and could only respond with thumbs up or thumbs down. What he did do was laugh so hard that his belly jiggled and he had tears streaming down his cheeks. When my partner and I left the room, I turned to her and with tears in my eyes told her, “That is why I’m back.”