Lessons in Kindness Never End

(Some of you have not been receiving this blog regularly. I assure you that it is written and submitted weekly. We are investigating this problem with WordPress.)

I am getting settled and acclimating to my new home; I have much to do as far as picture arrangements, but the general outlay is complete. The routine for meals, chapel, and daily activities is becoming comfortable. Making friends is easy because everyone: residents, employees, administrators are friendly and genuinely interested in each resident. I have observed constant kindness throughout the facility. I guess this is something one would expect from a Catholic-oriented ministry.

But let me tell you about an exceptional example of this kindness. Last week, a resident died who was well-loved by everyone. Her abundant kindness endeared her to every resident and employee. But her deep affection for one person was a sterling example of kindness.

Dolores was a super Catholic! We’re talking EWTN Catholic and daily rosary Catholic. She was bent over her walker and suffered major loss of eyesight in recent years to the point of blindness the last two years of her life. Over the years, she had knitted blankets for newborns. She was a faithful attendee of the bible classes. Dolores was always smiling, an ambassador of good cheer. If she had a bad day, you would never know it. A longtime widow, Dolores had no children and no family. 

Sam has the build of an NFL linebacker. He is black. He is also Muslim. A devout Muslim. He grew up in Cleveland’s toughest neighborhoods, one of 20 children in the same family. Sam served time as a young man and lived close to the margins of the law as he entered adulthood. After a hospital stay several years ago, Sam was invited to Joseph’s Home, a ministry of the Sisters of Charity of St. Augustine until he could live on his own. But with nowhere to go after recuperation, the sisters asked us to offer Sam a room which we did. 

The incredulity of the situation could not be more obvious: Two people from two vastly different worlds somehow connected and became best friends. What made their friendship so special was that Dolores was kind to Sam and Sam was kind to Dolores. The kindness between them dissolved the differences. My volunteer friend was working at a gift shop sale in the Villa when she heard a man saying to someone, “Here’s a bracelet. It’s blue. And over here are some very pretty necklaces.” A woman’s voice piped in; “I feel scarves over here Sam. Any red or pink ones?” My friend turned to see Sam wheeling Dolores around the gift shop displays, something he would never have been inclined to do.

Sam left Dolores’s funeral Mass half-way through it, tears making their way down his cheeks. He was one of a small handful of persons to attend the burial rites. The head of pastoral care informed me that Sam and Dolores had many discussions on faith but with no intention of converting each other. 

Reflection

Last Sunday, while I was sitting on the patio, the door opened and Sam was wheeling a woman who wanted to check on her garden box in a row of boxes attended by residents for vegetables and flowers and Sam wanted to see how Dolores’s box was doing. 

I wondered, thoughtfully, how simple people can show such kindness despite major differences personally and culturally while persons of national and international influence in government and business and even religion, easily lose sight of kindness and understanding. I recalled traveling in the Holy Land a few years ago and being struck by the divisions of land, each division guarded by armed military. I think of the treatment of migrants in our country and others, and I’m saddened that we treat other human beings this way. Sacred Scripture, especially the Book of Leviticus, tells us, “You shall treat the alien who resides with you no differently than the natives born among you; have the same love for him as for yourself for you, too, were aliens in the land of Egypt.” (Leviticus 20:34) There are many other passages in which our God sternly admonishes us to be open to the alien, the migrant, even those different from us in our own country, our own neighborhoods.

This is something we should all reflect on regarding our own living circumstances and our country’s policies. 

God bless all my readers and Anonymous Angels. You are important to me.