Moving Outward

Field Placement Blog 4

Week 4:           Moving Outward

Monday Fr. Jason and I drove out to visit St. Paul’s PACE Akaloa in Chula Vista to meet Chaplain Bill. PACE is a program of all-inclusive elder care with a variety of services available. The focus of this meeting was to overview a grief project Bill and I will work on together. He has laid the groundwork for a ministry that we hope to expand to other PACE sites and, perhaps, to benefit the entire organization. This project addresses one of my field placement goals, so I was anxious to begin. However, I will save the details for a future post. Bill and I coordinated our calendars to find dates when I will return. 

Upon our return to home-base we learned of a going-away-party for a staff member. Who can turn down an ice cream social? Plus, it afforded an opportunity to connect with the Activities Director at the Manor regarding the flyers that I had finalized earlier for the upcoming workshop. Those discussed and delivered, ice cream eaten, it was time for some visiting at McColl. I returned to visit the little lady from last week to find she was away for hospital care. Instead, I met a recently arrived man very hard of hearing. His room was across from the nurses’ station, so our conversation was broadcast to all! We chatted about the photos on his wall, I prayed for him, and we spoke back and forth. I actually understood almost nothing he said. And, so I am not sure I responded appropriately, but he was cheerful enough about the whole thing. I try to err on the side of caring. Another lady seems to always be sitting in the lobby when I arrive. She remembers and greets me enthusiastically. We chat briefly.

Tuesday morning is service bulletin preparation time. Fr. Jason was out getting a tooth examined so we didn’t have to bump into each other around the computer. There were other organizational details to manage—a Care Bear to approve (I just convey messages between Fr. Jason and Chaplain Louise as I have no power to approve anything!), a meeting to schedule, so again it was afternoon before I made it to visiting time. 

I went straight to the woman at the Villa to check on her progress. She was in her room resting. I can’t say more comfortablybecause right away she noted her pain was not improved and she hoped her doctor would give her a shot of something later in the week. Still she seemed glad to see me and I drew up a chair. She has a way of getting right to the important stuff. She likes to talk “spirituality” and she willingly shares her life and history. A nurse had given her a stuffed giraffe connected to a baby giraffe. She had named the baby but couldn’t decide on a name for the mother. I mentioned that I had seen giraffes in the wild in Africa and a few of the details I remembered from my safari. This drew us into recollections of travel in her past arriving at the Vatican in Rome. So, we were once again at the heart of her spiritual world. Eventually we closed with prayer. Or, I prayed, first asking what she would like prayer for. One thing she mentioned seemed unnecessarily heavy to me and so I prayed such that when she heard my phrasing, she laughed out loud. I loved it! Often the best we can do with the burdens we have is to try to “lighten up”!

 Wednesday, I drove to PACE Nemeth to meet with Chaplain Louise. I arrived in time for her worship service. Afterwards, we discussed a plan for me to visit a lady I met at the service who has no one in the world! We scheduled three visits over the remainder of the summer. Perhaps I’ll be able to fit in one more. I’m sure I’ll have updates for a future post.

This weeks’ time on-site closed with the devotional service with the Senior Day participants followed by a visit at McColl. My little lady with the oxygen machine was back from the hospital. She slumped in her wheel chair with what appeared to be great effort. She seemed to want prayer but couldn’t name anything she desired beyond saying she’d like to lie down. I didn’t stay long, feeling that my presence was too heavy for her to bear. She is a tiny wisp of a woman, barely able to speak above a whisper, breathing, it appears, only because the oxygen machine pushes air in. I wondered if she could say what she wants, if she’d ask to have it removed. 

It’s a thin line, it seems, between trusting in and allowing God and supplanting God with willful human machinations. Of course, I would never project my view on anyone. But I do wonder just how moveable is the threshold that is death—if it can be moved at all. Perhaps that is a question for the far reaches of inter-stellar space. Perhaps only out there could we obtain the perspective to rightly answer it.