Open Features: Those In Need
Ellie Braun-Haley writes a poem about those who need, and He who cares.
Tonight I felt impelled to write a verse or two about the goodness of those who care for the ailing and the old. And for those who love and wait.
I was thinking of those families who can not visit and so they hire companions to be with their loved ones. And I was remembering some specific sights: a man who sits over his dear mother. He looks at her as the minutes tick by and she appears to be in slumber waiting for God to take her home. Day after day the man returns, waiting with his mother.
There is the caregiver who dresses her mother who is now ill with an infection, her true self lost in layers of delirium, and she fights and resists every step of the way. The young woman has tears in her eyes as she cries for this dear woman who is lost somewhere in her own mind.
And as many pictures flickered before me, I could see also in my mind's eye, my brothers arriving faithfully each day to share their day with the woman who nurtured them from birth.
My head is full of pictures of the old people, gentle souls, some with their minds intact, others lost with a puzzled look. All are in a waiting place. Some are filled with hope and some have had hope taken from them.
Help Is On the Way
The helpless waited patiently for help
from our Lord above
There was much to do and many who
Just worked for pay, not love.
Then in one strode like a knight of old
And goodness would prevail
“I’m here to defend those who are weak and frail
I’m called their guardian-ship”
He spoke with words that healed the spirit and lifted the hearts of all
A man of goodness arrived that day
to walk the centre’s hall
I looked into those caring eyes
and saw a man of valour
He may not have been an angel
but was the good man of the hour.
Unafraid, he gave out aid to those with aches
and pains and need
He checked the beds and counted heads
and steadied some who worried
At the end of shift he’d give more time,
it was surely his to give,
Then one last prayer, and with no fanfare
he gave a wave and sigh
And the people there knew that God did care
for God had heard their cry.
Tomorrow would come with rising sun
and knight would walk the halls.
