Misericordia 3

Today is going to be, I think, the best day of our volunteer work. This is our third full day and I started the day thinking that I would simply continue with the rotations as always. But it turns out that I connected with the residents in this art room so much that I just didn't want to leave.

In the morning session I met a guy named Bryan. When we first met he was very unmotivated to work on his project (which was painting in some stars that I had stenciled onto an ottoman). After listening to him for a little while, it turns out that he was distraught because his mother had died just last week. That would be devastating for anyone. So when he told me I tried to empathize with him by letting him know that of course it hurts to lose your mother. But I also let him know that he's got a lot of support here at Misericordia, and thus he has no reason to feel utterly alone. After I said that he seemed to be a lot more functional. At first he wanted a hug, and then he immediately got to work painting his stars. I spent the remainder of the morning session working on the ottoman with him and by the end of the morning session, he specifically asked me to come back in the afternoon. So I did.

After coming back from lunch I assumed that I would just work with Bryan again. It was really nice to see him again because apparently he wasn't sure if I would come back. When he saw me he just said "You came back!" and immediately sat next to me and got to work on painting in the stars. While it was good to see Bryan again, I also made some new friends. The first is a red-head, so she's just known as Red. She was sitting across from Bryan and I so it made sense for us to get to know each other. We were just making small talk when at some point she mentioned that she was in the Misericordia choir known as the "Heart Zingers." As part of this choir, Red has met many famous people including Michael Jordan, James Taylor, and the mayor of Chicago. She sings for the mayor of Chicago every Christmas!! The interesting thing about Red is that every time she mentioned a famous person she'd met, her tone was incredibly nonchalant. She just kind of threw it over her shoulder that she'd met all these people and she really thought it wasn't that big of a deal. Regardless of whether or not she has a disability, I'd be friends with her!

The third person I met today that I really enjoyed getting to know was Lisa. Her disability was much more obvious than Red's, but she could still think and talk for herself. She was working on painting stripes onto a chair today and she was also working near us. At some point Lisa decided that she needed to get to know me better, so she started grilling me with questions like "What's your favorite food?" "What's your favorite song?" "What's your favorite movie?" She asked these in such quick succession that I didn't even have time to answer them. But we started teasing her about it and after that we became friends. Yes, her conversation tended to be simplistic because of her disability. But that didn't take away my liking for her. I think having these friends (like Bryan, Red, and Lisa) is important because it makes me want to sympathize with this population and learn more about them in order to help us treat them better.