Every Tuesday around noon, Rich Limouze sits down in the Milestone Café on the Miles Campus of LincolnHealth with his acoustic guitar and plays from a song list that includes The Beatles, Celtic music and light jazz.

The music is melodic and soothing. Limouze plays with the smooth fluency born of a lifetime of practice and a deep love of music. His passion for volunteering has more recent roots, but is just as profound.

“I want to give back. It feels like my own life was given back to me,” said Limouze, of Jefferson.

Ten years ago, mantle cell lymphoma invaded 80 percent of his bone marrow and was in all his lymph nodes. His oncologist estimated he had three months to live.

Limouze received experimental treatment at the Dana Farber Institute in Boston, and after a grueling year, he was declared cancer-free. It was an experience that left him with a deep sense of gratitude, as well as an appreciation of the toll a medical crisis like cancer takes on patients and their families.

“Cancer is a family business. Everybody is involved. Even though you are the one with the cancer, it affects them (family members) just as much as if they had the cancer too,” said Limouze.

Connie Bright, LincolnHealth director of volunteers, met Limouze in 2004. When he explained his desire to use his musical talent to give back, it was only a question of where and how often he could play.

“Music offers so much joy to our residents. Volunteers have played a harp, violins, piano and guitar over the years,” said Bright.

But it doesn’t take musical talent to make a big difference in the day of a patient or a family member, she said.

In Boothbay Harbor and Damariscotta, about 244 volunteers have given more than 16,000 hours over the past year in a wide variety of roles. National Volunteer Week is April 12-18 this year. Everyone at Lincoln County Healthcare, including our staff, patients and trustees deeply appreciate the tremendous contribution our volunteers give, said Bright.

“Our volunteers run a cash register in the café, greet and escort patients, help with office duties, read to patients, help our residents write their life stories, bring certified pet therapy dogs to visit patients and residents and practically anything else you can imagine,” said Bright.

The warmth, the kindness they bring to their roles has an enormous impact, sometimes in unexpected moments.

Once, while taking a break from playing, Limouze was approached by a couple who seemed to be on the verge of tears.

Their son, in his 30s or 40s, lived in Florida and was dying of cancer. He had been a guitar player all of his life. For a moment as they listened to Limouze, they said it was almost as if he was there, with them.

Sometimes Limouze will play for a patient who seems uncomfortable or in pain, and by the time he leaves, they are sleeping.

Those moments, when he knows he has touched someone who is in distress, when he knows he has given comfort to a patient, make everything worthwhile, said Limouze.

“Man, you receive a lot more than you give,” he said.

If you are interested in becoming a Lincoln Health volunteer, call Connie Bright at 207-563-4508.