A senior and an AIDS client turn out to be wonderful pals

I love my (paying) Monday-to-Friday job. I teach at the Jewish Day School of the North Peninsula in San Mateo.

I also love my (paying) Sunday-morning job. I teach third-graders at Peninsula Temple Beth El in San Mateo.

In both places, there are caring, dedicated professionals and smart, adorable children.

To add another dimension to my life -- one that is every bit as fulfilling and rewarding as teaching children -- I volunteer for the S.F.-based Jewish Family and Children's Services' AIDS Project and the Peninsula JFCS Senior Visiting Program.

I am a practical-support volunteer for my AIDS client-turned-friend in the city. When he needs my help around his apartment or to run errands, he gets it. When he's feeling well enough to go out, we do. He has become a wonderful friend and we look forward to our visits together.

The senior I visit is so special that we think of our relationship as a mother-daughter one. She lives alone on the Peninsula. She drives, takes perfect care of herself and even belongs to two club groups that meet weekly. Our time together is more social, although sometimes we go on errands together.

We love trying different restaurants for dinner and we talk quite often by phone. She is my friend, my surrogate mother, my confidante. And believe it or not, we both come from the same Midwestern city years ago but we didn't know each other then!

Why do I volunteer? I cannot imagine these two wonderful people not being in my life.