Sightings

Janet (not her real name) is one of the young activity assistants whom I have come to deeply admire. She works during the day in a rehab hospital, and she does so with much attention and good cheer. She attends school at night and has done so for as long as I have known her. She lives at home and helps her father care for her mother who has been ill for some time. Last month when I asked her how her studies were going, she told me she was about to graduate and then was planning to go on to study Occupational Therapy.

"The baby boomers are starting to show up, and I think OT is a logical step from what I am doing now," she explained.  I know her thinking makes sense, because I, too, am seeing boomers in skilled nursing and rehab. I have said more than once that the ministry for me is becoming for me not a ministry for elders, but a ministry among peers.  However,  I must have had a concerned look on my face because the director, who was also taking part in the conversation laughed robustly, and said, "I know. The only reason I am letting her do this is because she has promised to return to take care of us."     

 

When I first began in this ministry, I often felt I was on the frontier with the elders I serve.  While yes, I still move among the old and the very old, more and more I realize this frontier is also my own.  In some ways, this knowing makes the ministry even more honest for me. I come, not to do something for others, but rather to simply be with those I love. We are in this together, and the vulnerability I extol every day is very much my own.   

  

Come, eat of my bread 

and drink of the wine I have mixed. 

Lay aside immaturity and live, 

and walk in the way of insight. 

Proverbs 8:5-6