Friday 24 October 2014

28 minutes 30 seconds

Leaning in & Been a Friend
Often we pass through life thinking we are alone, when in fact we aren't at all. It's very simple to be a blessing to another, hence I want to share an encounter that propelled me to think deeper about leaning in. I felt it was God's way of telling me something important about leaning in to other people's problem & issues especially the elderly, you never know what life experiences they have and what you might learn from them. 28:30 was all it took to make someones day on this occasion, listening and encouraging her to talk about her life. One of the home worker called in through to my department and we started taking about her life . .

I have often wonder why she was a workaholic and went beyond and above the call of duty every time, there are times when she got angry at me for telling her how to do her job and she constantly sent irrelevant emails which I purposely ignore. The phone call could have swung either way, but am glad it didn't as she told me about her life, living with asthma, been on anti-biotic and why all she really had was work to keep her sane.


Her name is Val and she is 61, she talked about her non-existent family except for a cousin who checked up on her every 2-3 months to see how she doing. Prior to that, she had her mum living with her, but lost her 5 years ago after falling ill for a period of time. Her mum had 7 brothers and 3 sisters who have all passed away as well, no cousins kept it touch, the only people she had in her day to day life was the neighbours. They were the ones with her when her mum died at home 5 years ago, no family, no nothing, just a bunch of strangers who had seen her through cancer and death of her mother.


The memories she shared made my heart sink, she recounted the number of times her mum had appeared to her in fleeting moments and this experiences felt so surreal she couldn't help but know that she wasn't alone spiritually. There was this time she was feeling down, she described a bright light shinning in the corner of the room and how she saw her mum. This other time she went out and been asking her dead mum to give her sign, lo and behold when she got home, there was a white feather in the middle of her upstairs bedroom and the windows were closed and curtains drawn. Unexplainable!!!!!!!!!!!!


I can't help but imagine her loneliness, losing her mum whom she described as her best friend & people actually thought they were sisters. She went on and on about her skin, hair, face and every other features that her made a special person and not once did she bore me. After she hung up, she sent me pictures of them together and wrote "Yes, we were very happy.  We were mother, daughter, sisters and the best of friends rolled into one".
She talked me for the lovely chat, hoping to speak again and I have never missed a chance to catch up.

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