ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — When strangers make prayer requests at Swedish Medical Center, Edith "Edee" Worth is there to answer them.
"Sometimes they ask God to be with them because it’s so hard to have someone so sick," she said.
Worth is the volunteer chaplain at Swedish Medical Center in Englewood. Two nights a week, she is the one who answers when bad news comes calling.
"You come in the middle of the night to the hospital and you are really working with families that are going through the worst day of their lives," she said.
For nearly 40 years, she has watched over patients, prayed with their families and helped strangers through some of life's darkest moments.
"God gave me the gift of gab — they’ve said that about me since I was a little kid, I have the gift of gab," she said. "I can talk to anybody, so this is how I use it."
Gina Graves, director of Pastoral Care at Swedish Medical Center, said she calls Worth her "energizer bunny."
"She volunteers every Tuesday and Thursday nights from 9 p.m. to 7 a.m.," she said. "Anytime I have a hole on my calendar that doesn’t have anybody, she always emails back and says, 'I’ll take it if nobody else wants it.'"
On top of her work at Swedish Medical Center, Worth also volunteers at her church and has gone on numerous missions overseas. Recently, she was named a 2018 finalist for the National Frist Humanitarian Award for Volunteer of the Year.
"She was runner-up in all of HCA (Healthcare)," Graves said. "I think last time I heard, I think we have like 135 hospitals in the HCA system, so I needed to add just another paragraph and maybe she would’ve won that one."
Worth has logged more than 23,000 hours as a volunteer chaplain. Still, for every prayer she has said and stranger she has helped, Worth said she's the one who continues to experience so many of life's blessings.
"This is a wonderful hospital," she said. "There are many miracles every day here and you can see that when you read these prayers."
Molly Hendrickson anchors Denver7 in the mornings from 4:30-7 a.m. She also features a different 7Everyday Hero each week on Denver7. Follow Molly on Facebook here and Twitter here. To nominate a hero in your life, click here.
