I come from a big family. When I was little, my older sisters were off at college and then getting married. So it used to be arranged that every once in a while we younger ones would get to spend a weekend with our older sisters and their families, aside from when they might come home for the holidays. I think I might have been about eighth grade or so when I visited my older sister LeeAnne. LeeAnne had trained as a nurse before she married. And then somehow along the way she'd also gone to what they called Beauty School. Do they still call it that? She loved to do people's hair. She still does! She did my hair for my wedding. When Aunt Jackie lived here last year, LeeAnne would come over and do her hair too. In fact when she goes to visit Aunt Jackie at her new digs in the retirement home she moved to, LeeAnne does her hair.
Anyway, when I went to visit her this one time, she took me with her to a nursing home near her house. It turned out that she would go and do various patients hair for them. For free. That was her ministry. My sister is a very warm, chatty person, with an easy laugh, so she shines at stuff like this. It was wonderful to see her walk into that nursing home and how the faces just lit up when they saw her. She had an appointment to do two people's hair that day. That's all I remember anyway. She did one old lady's hair. And then there was a woman there who was younger and had some terrible disease where she shook uncontrollably. Maybe it was MS? I can't remember. I just remember how she shook so much she couldn't sit up, so my sister put her in the bed and arranged pillows all around her so that she would be comfortable but somehow my sister could still do her hair. I remember my sister patiently putting make up on her too because the woman's children were going to visit her that afternoon and she wanted to look nice. It was so sad, but I remember how much I admired my sister for doing what she did.
I think that was the first time I ever was in a nursing home.
Taking care of the elderly even when they are at home and fairly well off financially is still a big deal. It takes lots of planning and patience. But for those who get stuck in nursing homes, it really is a wonderful ministry to go and visit them. I am thinking about this today because Becky's American Heritage Troop is going to sing Christmas carols at a nursing home today. They do this every year and for some reason every year we miss it! We always intend to go but something comes up. This is the third year this has happened! Becky woke up with another fever yesterday and threw up all day long. She didn't keep one ounce of food in her stomach. Absolutely miserable. This a.m. I checked on her and her fever is gone. She woke up for once second and said 'Mommy, I feel so much better!" But she still isn't going to sing at any nursing home today.
However, we have tried to go to various nursing homes over the years. When Hannah was in Little Flowers, they used to go yearly to do the same thing (sing Christmas carols). When my boys were in Cub Scouts, they'd go and put on funny skits. This was not at Christmas time, but on Presidents Day and the skits always had a patriotic/American history theme.
I knew of some people who made it a regular family ministry to go and visit Alzheimer's patients every week. I was so in awe of this I decided we as a family would try to do the same. It ended in fiasco. One of my impulsive kiddos did something that upset a patient who began screaming obscenities at him! So that was the last time we did that! The nurse was so appalled and felt so bad for my son. He was pretty traumatized by it. So it ain't all sweetness and roses!
A couple years ago we joined 4-H. I would have loved to have stayed in 4-H but things didn't work out. But while we were part of it, we did get to have a really fun Christmas party which the group apparently held every year at a nursing home. It was a very fun party and the kids really enjoyed mingling with the patients there. Each 4-Her had made a pretty Christmas ornament to give each person in the nursing home and we sang carols and put on silly skits.
Oh, and I just remembered that our parish youth group is going caroling at the nursing home near our Church on 12/14. I have to put that down on my calendar.
I do think a lot of stuff happens at Christmas and then nursing home patients get ignored by groups the rest of the year, it seems.
So once again we are very inconsistent about helping out the lonely and elderly. However, there is an order of sisters who devote their lives to taking care of the poor elderly. They are the Little Sisters of the Poor. So if you can't be very consistent with actual visiting and assisting the elderly, you can give a donation to these lovely women who spend their lives caring for those who are too poor to afford a nursing home.
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