Want to do a good deed? Take a child to a nursing home!

Every Sunday I take Communion to eight Catholics at a local nursing home. All but one are seriously mentally incapacitated with either Alzheimer's disease or dementia. Several are often difficult and hostile. But what a change comes over them when they see children! One lady is often negative and cheerless. Not today! We took our two little visitors from the Fresh Air Fund and she just kept telling them over and over how beautiful they are. She asked them questions about school and how they were enjoying their visit. She repeated herself several times. Alzheimer's patients can't remember from one minute to the next what they just said, but the entire visit was sweet and charming.

I love all these dear people and am saddened when people talk about how their lives aren't worth living. Of course they are! They invite us to self-sacrifice. They remind us of what we need to be before our God -- dependent and little. They are the ones in the highways and byways that the master sent his servants to gather in for the banquet. And they are also the ones he said to invite to dinner -- those who can't invite us back.

Please, please take your children and grandchildren to nursing homes. Teach them that the sick, the suffering, and the elderly are precious in God's sight. It is a corporal work of mercy, but I can tell you that you will receive more than you can give.

The Eden Alternative

With the population aging, more and more families will be dealing with elder care, either at home or in institutions. When I read this article about the Eden Alternative I was excited at the possibilities for helping those who can no longer be as independent as they would like to still know how valuable they are in the community. Our capacity to love isn't measured by the number of sex conquests, but by our service to those around us. Think of a "story project" where young people interact with an elderly person for a number of weeks learning about their lives and experiences of a by-gone age. That is living history. My own dad had a Navy archivist visiting him in the last weeks of his life. Among the diminishing group of Pearl Harbor survivors, he had a story to share about a critical period of our U.S. past.

I visit a nursing home every week to bring Communion to the Catholic residents. I see exactly what the Eden project is saying when they describe the triple enemies of the elderly and disabled: loneliness, helplessness, and boredom. My own brother who had a stroke three years ago and is debilitated both physically and mentally from it is living that triple challenge.

What a blessing if things could be changed to create a more homelike environment with partnerships in the community. I'm adding the Eden Alternative to my rosary prayer list. The founder of the Eden Alternative, Dr. Bill Thomas has written a book called Tribes of Eden. I haven't read it, but I'm intrigued by the promo.

Question for the Day: Do You Ever Visit the Lonely in Nursing Homes?

“Being unwanted, unloved, uncared for, forgotten by everybody, I think that is a much greater hunger, a much greater poverty than the person who has nothing to eat.”

Mother Teresa of Calcutta