For those of you who read yesterday’s post, I sang well last night.  My eyes met those of the audience, and I touched the hearts of many.

“Remember When The Music” is a profound creation from Harry Chapin.  Here’s a sample:

Remember when the music
Was a glow on the horizon of every newborn day
And as we sang, the sun came up to chase the dark away
And life was good, for we knew we could

***

I’m beginning my career in a care home as a volunteer with residents who have dementia.  Yesterday our group of fourteen went for a walk through the old streets near the centre.

(The photo you see here is from the Internet – not us)

The staff don’t know that I spent three years managing volunteers at a hospital in Canada.  Yesterday my task was simply to walk beside a resident I’ll call Pascal.  Other staff and volunteers were pushing folks in wheelchairs.  I smiled as I remembered teaching volunteers how to be gentle and alert with patients in wheelchairs.  Ah … the chapters of a life.

Pascal didn’t speak English and my Dutch is a work of very slow progress.  Plus there’s the fuzziness in his mind.  And the probability that he’s known a particular dialect of Dutch all his life – something that’s incomprehensible in mine.

On the surface of things, Pascal and I weren’t a good match, but there were depths available.  I composed short sentences, with grammatical mistakes and incorrect pronunciation.  But mostly he got my words.  And I know he got my intention to be kind.  We smiled a lot.

***

The care home is where I want to be

The residents with dementia are whom I want to be with

On we go