Reflection #12 "Miss Me But Let Me Go" Death. It's something we don't ever like to talk about, but it is a reality at the nursing home. Our friends there have lived many years -- 80, 90, even 100. We may be talking, laughing, and singing with them one day, and they can [...]

Reflection #11 "Defining Friendship" Eleven weeks ago we started with a mission. To go out and make friends with someone in need. Someone whose health is failing them; someone who is slow to trust. We found out quickly that it isn't always easy. So, how do we know if we've made any real [...]

Reflection #10 "Don't Come" Visiting the nursing home isn't always easy. Can you leave your own troubles behind, to tend to the troubles of the people you visit? Are you afraid to shout into deaf ears, to look into blind eyes, and to hold hands with someone who isn't physically attractive? Nursing Home [...]

Reflection #9 "Feeling Safe" The elderly we meet at the nursing home aren't always capable of a two-way friendship. Sometimes they won't remember us. They're afraid to trust us. Sometimes they are bitter because of all the people who have hurt them. But if we keep coming back...maybe, just maybe, our faces will [...]

Reflection #8 "The Starfish" Back a few weeks ago the reading was about how difficult it can be to see the positive results of our volunteering. Thomas Merton reminded us that the personal relationships we form make all the difference, even if we can't measure the results. There is a story about a [...]

Reflection #7 "Being Wanted" Some statistics say that as many as  60% of nursing home residents have no regular visitor. Together we are doing something about it, in our own small way. Mother Teresa of India saw thousands of people afflicted with all kinds of diseases in her lifetime. But read below what [...]

Reflection #6 "The Importance of Trees" Perhaps the reason why there are so few visitors at the nursing home is because people fail to see the value in it. Anyone could explain the value to society in feeding the hungry, or working with children. And those are definitely worthwhile endeavors. But what about [...]

Reflection #5 "The Hope of Results" One of the most difficult things about visiting the nursing home is that we can't always see the positive results of our actions. Maybe we will be forgotten five minutes after we leave. Yes, that is true. But for the time we are there, we are making [...]

Reflection #4 "The Empty Chair" We keep our houses and apartments neat. We want to be ready in case we have a visitor. We have guest rooms, hide-a-bed couches, and comfortable chairs for visitors to sit in. We enjoy having visitors stay. But what if they never did? THE EMPTY CHAIR By M. [...]

Reflection #3 "Letter to My Children" The letter below was written by an 80 year old lady to her children. We chose it as the reading for this week because it gives us insight into what the elderly we visit truly want at this point in their lives. She tells her children, "All [...]