Pastoral Care In Action

A warm welcome always awaits me every time I pull into the parking spot assigned to Judy. Not only do I have a place for my car, but Judy is always there to make sure that it is available and even escorts me into position, amid squeals of delight! This is the greeting with which she routinely blesses me.

Judy has cerebral palsy and uses a wheelchair. She has her own apartment and is assisted by caregivers supplied by an agency. Although her speech has improved dramatically in recent years through much hard work on her part, the people in her life still have difficulty understanding some of what she says. To remedy this, Judy has thought of a great way to communicate. Before each visitor leaves she asks them to write a summary of relevant aspects of their conversation in her thick spiral notebook. In this way Judy shares with others what has been going on in her life with a minimum of oral communication on her part. It also has the effect of building community among all the persons in Judy's life.

The pages of her book are filled with segments of the life story she is writing interspersed with notes to her caregivers about scheduling, frustrations about transportation problems, a recent retreat she has gone on and the normal ups and downs of daily life. Its very simplicity speaks of the sacramentality of all life.

But closer attention to the tapestry she is weaving reveals a woman of great courage who has suffered much and has accepted the challenge to open herself to living life to the fullest. She is recognizing her worth and value as a human being by coming to terms with childhood memories of parents who routinely ostracized her from family activities, discounted her abilities, and closed her in her room whenever company came because they were ashamed of her disability. Her strength of character and tenacity to face and deal with such early blows to her self-esteem are enabling her to emerge as the woman of wisdom that she truly is. It is a profound honor as a chaplain to be invited into Judy's world to celebrate God' action in her life.

* Story used with permission.

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