While I am here at our Motherhouse, I have found some
wonderful ways to 'wash feet' - sort of. Each morning I go to Samaritan Wing (an
area of our house that offers 'assisted living' to resident sisters and
priests). They come together in a dining room for breakfast. There are
about 10 sisters and 3 priests there to serve. Several of the sisters are
former college professors who taught me. My 'job' is to tell them what is
available for breakfast and serve them what they want. This morning, one
of the sisters who has dementia and difficulty speaking, grabbed my hand and
held it tight. So I bent over and kissed her forehead. Another sister at
her table said, "I'll have one of those too!"
I also have been driving for sisters who can no longer drive
themselves - taking them to appointments or shopping - this is fun too.
Once I spent an entire day at the hospital with a sister who was having
ambulatory surgery - she has some memory problems and cannot always speak
for herself - so that was my job. She is someone I never really knew before,
but now we are great friends! In fact, she is someone I serve breakfast
too and if she can't get out the words to say what she wants to eat, she just
smiles at me and says, "You know."
One day I heard her say something that I thought would be good
advice for lots of people: "I'm just going to be quiet - too many words
are falling out!"
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