From The Goldfields
God-Talk: Dancing
The Revd Dr Elizabeth J Smith AM, Mission Priest, Parish of The Goldfields
At Edward Collick Home (ECH) last year, in an aged-care quality survey, a magnificent 100% of residents and families agreed that the ECH staff are kind and caring. But what does that look like in practice?
In the lead-up to Christmas, the Occupational Therapy Assistant (OTA) team members muster great creativity to deck the dining room with colourful decorations, different each year. At party time, there are crackers to pull, paper crowns to don, bad dad jokes to tell, a feast fit for the festival, and a visiting singer who plays all the favourite pop songs, Christmas songs and carols. The decorations are magic. The music is a great memory-jogger for the residents and their family members.
Then presents are distributed. The OTA team have shopped, choosing so thoughtfully something that each resident will enjoy. The chap with cold feet gets the right size of slippers. The keen Aboriginal dot painter gets a big canvas. Last year, gifts were distributed by Mrs Claus, embodied by the Service Manager in a fetching, off-the-shoulder, red-and-white outfit, and knee-length black leather boots!
There is dancing to ABBA songs and other favourites with a familiar beat. Many residents can still get into the groove of their rock’n’roll or disco youth. Feet tap, eyes light up. The music is loud enough that even the deaf can hear it, and rock on. Staff join in, with some great dance actions of their own. They draw in all kinds of residents, including one in a wheelchair. He has advanced Parkinsons, but he grins widely as they twirl him around.
We treasure our residential care staff for their professional gentleness and skill when they bathe residents, feed them, help them dress, manage their medication. But it’s those dance moves that lift the staff’s contribution from a credit to a high distinction. The energy, the laughter, the reaching-out to include the shyest and the least mobile resident – these warm my heart.
Some of the ECH staff have an active Christian faith. Others quit the church years ago, or come from backgrounds in Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, or other faiths. But the Holy Spirit does not ask you to recite the Nicene Creed before recruiting you to add some love and sparkle to the world.
Most ECH staff are a long way from their own parents and grandparents, who are in countries all around the world, from Armenia to Zimbabwe. I am sure their love for their own parents contributes to the love they give to our Kalgoorlie-Boulder nursing home residents. When you can’t dance with your own granny, you can dance with Madge or John, Laszlo or Denise.
Mary and Joseph, too, were miles from their families when the time came for their baby to be born. I wonder if they shared their joy, and some cuddles, with grandmotherly, grandfatherly types in Bethlehem on Christmas Day? I wonder if simple gifts were given and received across the generations? Wherever people dance with friends or strangers, God is surely right there among us.