A fraction of these citizens are of Vietnamese descent. The elder members of this new ethnic community, the vast majority of whom immigrated after 1975, arrived here with few, if any, personal belongings and spent the next forty years establishing homes, businesses and families, raising children and putting them through college.

Having invested their energy, time and money in ensuring their children got a good start in their adopted nation, many of these men and women have entered their senior years without the luxury of savings accounts, pension plans, 401k plans or other sources of retirement income. They are relying largely on their cultural cohesion, their unflagging resourcefulness and, in northern Houston, their friends at the Annam Vietnamese-American Community Center for Seniors—and the visitors who arrive there once a month aboard the CHRISTUS Healthy Living Mobile Clinic.

Healthcare for aging Houstonians, particularly those who have limited resources and mobility, constitutes a major focus of the mobile clinic’s mission.  In serving Houston’s Vietnamese community, as at similar stops in nursing homes and other neighborhood centers, the clinic’s crew teams with volunteer physicians to provide routine medical exams, annual influenza vaccines, and free blood-pressure, glucose, cholesterol and prostate-specific-antigen (PSA) screenings. They also collaborate with the Texas Gulf Coast affiliate of the Y-ME National Breast Cancer Organization in providing education about and screenings for breast cancer.

A Follow-Up With Linda Graves

We first visited with Linda when she came for an appointment in the Mobile Clinic at Houston’s St. Austin Center. We met up with her again this April at the Denver Harbor Senior Center, closer to her home. Linda was visiting for a routine blood test, to be administered by Sister Theresa Kelleher, CVI, RN.

When Linda first visited the Mobile Clinic several years ago she learned that her chronic dizziness was being caused by a blood glucose level nearly five times normal. Nurse Laura Clay directed her to a hospital for emergency treatment. A single mother caring for a 19-year-old son with Down syndrome, Linda began treating both adult-onset diabetes and hypertension with medication as well as changes in diet and lifestyle. She has both conditions under control.

Jesse, her son, now presents the greater challenge, a result of his increasing intellectual disability and need for attention. Nonetheless, Linda is optimistic about returning to work soon. When she talks about it, she glows with faith and enthusiasm for life – hers and others. “I just always hang in there,” she explains. “I never stop.”

Sadly, we’ve learned also that, because of the diabetes, Linda’s lost feeling in one foot and in two fingers on one hand. This complication notwithstanding, she’s doing well and “in love with the people of the CHRISTUS clinic,” to use her words. “They’re so nice here,” she concludes. “What would I do without them?

Thanks to many generous people, Linda doesn’t have to learn the answer to that question.