Blog for Abby Y.

I was nervous. A bit scared even. We were going to TCC early in the morning leaving at 8:15am which meant we would probably get there much earlier than our scheduled 10am start time. And unlike Monday our time wouldn’t be broken down with tours and talks. I was afraid of having the entire day until 5pm to interact with the residents at TCC. I was mainly wary about the amount of time spent with the residents because I wasn’t sure if I could meet their needs. I wasn’t sure if my presence would really be as beneficial as I hoped it would be.

Well we got there on time and soon our group sitting in a circle had turned into an envelope sealing factory. This small task was lifting a burden off of Lorelei who had to send out mail from TCC to individual residents. What would have taken her maybe an hour we completed in a few minutes. We then had one of the chaplains’ talk to us about what she does for the residents at TCC. Her brief explanation of why some patients knock their heads consistently such as one person who had to have a helmet placed on his head for his protection stuck with me. “They are trying to gain back their identity,” she explained. Sometimes when we can’t think of a certain thing we may hit our heads to try and bring back the memory which is what these residents are doing. There is a human being inside and because of their physical restraints who they are becomes somewhat trapped inside. She went on to reveal that she mainly manages residents ability to deal with suffering, pain, abandonment, God’s role in their life, and much more psychological issues.

 Then we met with the residents talked to them for a bit and played a couple of games and before we knew it, it was lunch time. During lunch Elenor had described to me her experience with an Italian speaking resident who had been at TCC for five years and during that time because she hadn’t been able to communicate via English the doctors had not been able to get most of her medical history from her. Elenors’ presence had not only brought the resident great joy but also truly benefited the health practitioners so they could serve the resident better. After our meals we gathered up more games and went back to interact with the residents.  During this time we played many card games of which I knew very little.

 I learned many ways of how to use a deck of cards but more importantly my fears from the early morning had vanished. I came to realize that just our presence is very valuable. Whether its helping the staff member seal envelops or making sure that a residents history and story is heard through their own language, all forms of support are valuable and very much needed.

-          Abby