Good Samaritan honored for honesty

HARLINGEN - A hospital housekeeper who found two envelopes stuffed with cash in a women's restroom is being honored for her honesty.

Herlinda Gillam, who had only been on the job about two weeks when she found the cash on May 26, said other people were going in and out of the public restroom near the labor and delivery department in the East Tower at Valley Baptist Medical Center-Harlingen.

It was between 5 p.m. and 6 p.m. on a busy Saturday, but no one else had noticed the envelopes that contained $11,000.

"A lot of things went through my head," said Gillam, a middle-aged widow. "The first thing that popped into my mind was that I had to take it to my supervisor," Pete Martinez.

It seemed to her an elderly person might have forgotten where she had left the cash, Gillam said. The money could have been for a mortgage payment or to pay a large bill, she said.

"That's what I thought," she said. "It crossed my mind, wondering who left the money behind here. It had to be, like, an old lady."

First, she counted the money, Gillam said. One envelope had $100 bills and the other had 50s and 20s, she said.

"You think something, then you think other things," she said. "Well, like, I need tires. I could take it with me, then. But I said no, I'll take it back, because somebody might need it. ... That's the way I was thinking."

She thought it best to let Martinez handle the situation, Gillam said. Martinez called the hospital security department.

"I went back to my job," she said. "I let him handle that stuff."

Chuck Reynolds, VBMC vice president for Aramark support services, said the owner of the money hadn't reported the loss at first, but did come back to retrieve the money.

Aramark is a contractor that handles cleaning duties, food service and other jobs at VBMC.

"It's the first time this ever happened to me, to find a lot of money like that," Gillam said. "I mean, you find nickels and dimes and pennies in the street, but I mean, $11,000, right in the ladies' bathroom?"

She never really considered keeping the money, Gillam said.

"It makes you think, you know. A lot of people said I should have kept it," she said. "But I said, no, it was inside the building ... It was not like, outside, like in Fair Park. It was still here, in Valley Baptist. It was my job to hand it to the supervisor."

Reynolds said employee training includes the motto "Integrity in all we do," which was personified by Gillam's actions.

"Our guest (owner of the money) who was visiting a patient in labor and delivery, was very grateful that Herlinda returned this large sum of money," Reynolds said. "She counted the money, and it was all there!"

The owner of the money was very relieved to learn the cash had been turned in, Reynolds said. The money was intended as a payment on property taxes.

Gillam was a Good Samaritan, Reynolds said.

"She's very modest. She doesn't consider what she did special," he said. "She told me she did what she thought was right ... and the way she would want to be treated."

Valley Baptist spokesman Mike Swartz said Gillam has been nominated for the hospital's Helping Heroes award, and if she wins will receive some prizes. She has already been recognized at a meeting of hospital supervisors, Swartz said.