Meg and Larry Tuttle have been supporting Caring Hearts and Hands through monthly giving, furniture donations, special memorial pillows, and more. Let’s take a minute to get to know the Tuttles and why they give to CHHC!
What brought you to Caring Hearts and Hands?
Meg: Jackie made a presentation at our Knights of Columbus auxiliary, and just something about what she had to say and how she had to say, it piqued my interest, and so I talked to her, and we donated some furniture, and that’s kind of where it started.
What draws you to CHHC’s mission?
Larry: We are strong believers in the dignity of life, and the more we learned about the mission of Caring Hearts and the need in Columbia, the more it resonated with us and touched our hearts.
Meg: It all fit in with what our belief system is for giving and just was one more avenue that we could help people. The idea that it’s for people who don’t have family around, we can identify with that, because we’ve moved around a lot.
Larry: As a background, we moved here from San Antonio. I was on staff at a retirement community, fairly large community with about 700 residents and two campuses, and we saw the need for end of life care.
What would you tell others thinking about volunteering with or donating to CHHC?
Meg: People shouldn’t be alone in their last few days, and this fulfills that need.
Larry: Like it or not, this is that’s going to touch everybody in the community at some point. How wonderful it is to have that agency to be able to meet the needs of families in a situation that can cause stress and crisis. The community needs to recognize the value of Caring Hearts.
So tell us a bit more about yourselves outside of CHHC?
Meg: We have two sons and one daughter. Among them we have eight grandchildren. Larry and I were both born and raised in Indiana. We met and got married at Indiana University and have been married for 57 years. We spent over 20 years in the Air Force with tours all over the U.S. and one three-year tour in Germany. We enjoy traveling and spending time with family. We moved here eight years ago, and that was to be close to our grandchildren, except our grandchildren live in Dallas and Indianapolis, so close is a relative term. We’re between both. We’re between our three children, and that has gotten us involved with their lives, and being involved here in Columbia. San Antonio is a huge city, and we love the size of Columbia. We like that there’s a university here. I’m a retired teacher. I taught high school math for 24 years. The word retired is a wonderful word these days, and I have taken up quilting since I retired.
Larry: After retiring from the military, I was involved with nonprofit management for another 25 years. Knowing that startup nonprofits and nonprofits that are in the initial phases need to have a growing group of donors, I would encourage anybody who has donated to look at being a monthly donor. To have that sustaining revenue stream for the agency is so important to create a foundation of financial support for operations. So we’ve become monthly donors, as well as with Meg’s talents quilting. She smiles and glows whenever she either makes the pillow or the quilts.
Meg: I’ve made a couple of pillows. The family will bring a shirt or a dress or something, and then we make them into memorial pillows. So I’ve made two of those now, and that just brings me a lot of joy. I’m also in a group at our church, and I knit hats that somebody else takes to cancer patients. And that brings me a lot of joy also.
Do you have anything else you’d like to share about CHHC?
Meg: My mother passed away probably 11 years ago. We were in San Antonio, she was in northern Indiana, and yes, she was in a facility, you know, where there were people there, but we weren’t there. And so knowing how I felt not being there, it’s nice to know that somebody else can have you all to take care of their loved ones.
