Longtime Riverview Health volunteer retires 

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At 89, it seems to Carolyn Johns a good time to slow down.

Johns has been a Riverview Health volunteer since 1989, serving as manager of the gift shop since 1990.

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Johns

“I will miss working at the hospital because the people are so great,” Johns said. “There comes a time in life when it’s time to hang up your hat. With this quarantine, it gave me time after 31 years to get adjusted to being home. It’s always wise when you know that time (to retire) has arrived.”

The Noblesville resident volunteered four hours a day, five days a week for the last several years. She stopped working in mid-March due to the coronavirus pandemic.

“It involved doing all the scheduling and did a lot of the buying for all the clothing and gift items in the shop. I tried to make sure that everything ran as smoothly as possible,” Johns said. “I love working with people. I love fashion and helping people put an outfit together. I like helping with the displays.”

Johns, who also volunteers for Riverview Health Auxiliary, will definitely be missed.

“Carolyn is one amazing and classy lady,” Riverview Health Volunteer Manager Melinda Nash said. “When I came on board about 1 1/2 years ago, I said that she should have been paid for all of her time and dedication, and she said if I paid her, she would have left and volunteered somewhere else.

“She has given so much of her time and talent to Riverview Health, and we are so grateful for her years here.”

Tricia Hall, Riverview’s director of pulmonary and neuro services who previously had served as the volunteer manger, has known Johns for 20 years.

“She is so kind and funny,” Hall said. “She is honestly the most vibrant 89-year-old I have ever known. I will miss our daily chats about everything, from my kids, her daughter, grandkids and great-grand kids, to solving the world’s problems. I think she gets a little feistier every year. I always tell her I am going to be just like her when I grow up.”

Johns graduated from Noblesville High School in 1949. Her late husband, Edward “Bud” Johns, graduated from NHS in 1945. The couple moved away after getting married but returned in 1987 to help with their parents. Her husband died in 1998.

She had volunteered at a hospital gift shop for several years when living in Michigan. Johns has one daughter, three grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren.

“Growing up in Noblesville was a sheer delight, a safe place,” she said. “A couple of years after we moved back, it went from a small place to what it is now. I love the area.”


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