Journal of Sacred Work

Time is a trick. But the biggest trick is reality. Memory is also a trick and I need to keep posting pictures to help mine remain in tact for some of thousands of caregiving choir members I once was honored to work with. 

   The older I get, the more sentimental (and grateful to live this long) I become. That hyphen between First Day-Last Day seems symbolic of all the intervening days.

    Between that first and last day at Baptist Hospital were pals (in picture) Liz Lemons, Debi Villines, Tejuana Holmes, Kim Fielden, Holly Harris Smithey, Ron Hollis and naturally, in the course of picturing people I keep leaving way to many out.

Added today in picture top left, Debbi Cogswell and Holly Kunz, Baptist; Joe Forquer, Mina Wilson, Tracy Kronk, Mina Wilson, Rose Rosser, Riverside Methodist. 

   Alumni reunions bring truths home. We say the same thing: "It all went so fast."

   It did not, of course.  Our career years become compressed in a giant box becoming too many to count. We must summarize.

    Boredom makes Time crawl. The clock's hands in 8th grade study hall were frozen! But caregivers are always busy.

   Pain is the ultimate clock-stopper. 60 years with Crohn's disease put me in touch with how long ten minutes can feel. But caregivers shorten pain. 

   And Time sprints at reunions. Haven't seen a co-worker in decades? Surprised how we look different? Why are we startled?

   Our memory of others's first appearance is fixed. Memory can romanticize.Why do widows and widowers who re-marry sometimes pick old classmates?  Recollection returns gray hair to its original shade. 

   Facebook delivers pictures of hospital friends I once saw routinely. Only naming a few because they happened to race randomly through Memory in these writing moments.

   Kandy Duncan, Scott Shook and Hugh Grefe (Riverside Toledo), (pictures coming)

   Erin Keller, Elaine Losego, and Claudia Wilder. (Riverside Methodist) 

   Gail Frain, Perri-Lynn White, Holly Smithey, (Baptist) 

   Tracy Wimberly (All three!) 

   Literally tens of thousands more who mattered so much!

   Decades since we worked together. Memory sees them as they were, not how they are.

   42 years since Riverside, Toledo; 30 since I walked out the door of Riverside Methodist; 22 since I departed Baptist. Memory sees so many as they looked back then.  

   But I remember the loving presence of each today. That remains the same!

-Erie Chapman 

You can support this caregiver's journal via Erie Chapman Foundation charity. Donate-a-Dollar https://www.eriechapmanfoundation.net.   

HUGE thanks to the two anonymous donors who recently donated $50 and $100 respectively to support the charitable work of our foundation.