Bethel Digni-tea

What a great day - so proud of everyone at Bethel - those who helped and those who came to our afternoon tea. We were asked do you do this every week!!!? The young people from our church were designing dignity canvass bags to order - everyone was so pleased with the end result. I must share something with you though - I was speaking to a lady who has had a stroke - her daughter asked me to tell her what dignity meant. Over a cup of tea - we talked about the acronym SPICES and I asked her what was important to her in terms of her social - physical -intellectual - cultural - emotional - spiritual needs. She shared lots with me but i was most moved by her emotional needs - she had already told me that she had five daughters and one died as she was born - when we got to discussing her emotions she returned to the loss of her baby daughter - she said she was not strong enough to breathe - she said the doctor said she would have struggled with life because of her weak heart - she said I didn't care though I would have looked after her - the more she said the more i realised that lady was still grieving for her beautiful daughter - 60 years on and it is still as painful - I didn't know the lady but I thanked her for sharing such intimacy with me - it really reinforced just how taking the time to listen allows people to express their deep down feelings. Every day should be spent taking the time for digni-tea!!!!