Several winters ago, Lois Cornish says she met a real Grinch: a notoriously cantankerous veteran who lived at the Veterans Home of California-Chula Vista.

In our ongoing “Volunteers Serving Veterans” series, CalVet highlights Cornish, who began volunteering at the Chula Vista Home when it opened in 2000. She soon started recruiting some of her American Legion Post friends to help decorate the Home for the holidays.

“I get everybody involved,” said the 88-year-old widow of a career Navy man.

But when she encountered this particular resident, he let her know in no uncertain terms that he wasn’t feeling that Christmas spirit thing.

“He used a few choice words when he told me he didn’t want anything around his room,” she said. “It wasn’t anything I hadn’t heard, having been married to a Navy man.”

Even so, he kept watching as she climbed a ladder to place decorations elsewhere in the hall. Suddenly, and without another word, he went back into his room and emerged with a handful of safety pins.

“Here,” he said. “Use these.”

That started a conversation and a transformation.

“That’s when I realized people had misjudged him,” Cornish said. “He turned out to be a totally different person.”

The crusty vet, who passed away in 2020, simply validated her lifelong tenet — that most everyone and everything has an upside.

“I don’t dwell on bad things,” she said. “I look for the good in everyone and everything. I’ve done that all of my life. I can’t change now.”

Nor can she stop volunteering her time to help others, which she has done since retiring — “I quit working for money in 1995.” — from the North Island Naval Air Station on San Diego’s Coronado Island.

Cornish’s volunteer duties at the Chula Vista Home have encompassed everything from taking the residents shopping to checking temperatures and making sure everyone entering the Home’s skilled nursing facility wore masks during the COVID-19 pandemic.

She also volunteers at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs’ San Diego Medical Center, where she teaches disabled veterans to make the paper poppies used to generate donations to the American Legion. The poppies are in remembrance of the World War I poem “Flanders Field,” and are also made by the Veterans of Foreign Wars, where she’s also been a member.

Additionally, she’s worked with incarcerated veterans who made decisions to change their lives.

“It’s as good for me as it is for them,” Cornish said.

She said she has no plans to stop volunteering, and hopes the Veterans Home ramps its program back up now that the pandemic restrictions have eased.

“I can’t sit and do nothing,” Cornish said. “It’s not my nature.” Nor is letting a Grinch be so, well, Grinchy.

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This article is part of a series of stories about volunteers in our Veterans Homes — volunteers serving veterans. For more information on the Homes, and to volunteer at a specific Home, visit www.calvet.ca.gov/calvet-programs/veteran-homes for contact information. Ask for the volunteer coordinator.

The Veterans Homes of California system of care offers affordable long-term care to older and disabled veterans as well as their eligible spouses and domestic partners. With eight facilities across the state, the services offered range from assisted living programs with minimal support to 24-hour skilled nursing care for veterans with significant clinical needs including memory care.

CalVet staff are uniquely capable of serving the needs of our veterans and provide an environment that honors their service to the country. The Veterans Homes are nationally recognized for the premier care and services they provide to California’s veterans. ​For more information on the Homes visit www.calvet.ca.gov/calvet-programs/veteran-homes.

Would you like the opportunity to serve veterans in your work? Join the CalVet team! We are dedicated to ensuring that veterans from every era, along with their families, receive the state and federal benefits and services they have earned and deserve due to their selfless and honorable military service. At CalVet, we prioritize serving veterans and their families with dignity, compassion, and a commitment to helping them achieve the highest quality of life. See our current job openings at www.calcareers.ca.gov/CalVet.