Soldiers of Healthcare

This is one of many people who take care of my mom in memory care. His name is Evans.

Don’t even think about being sad around him. He has a laugh that will shake you right out of it.

It is the sound of mischief and play.

The sound of it rings out in this mostly silent community of people who've mostly lost their voices, their connections, their memories.

Evans’ laugh comes from his soul, maybe from his childhood long ago in Kenya. But also from where he is in each moment: with our mothers and fathers, and with those of us who still remember what our mothers and fathers were like before Alzheimer’s.

On some days, Evans is a warrior standing sentry for the end of life. He, and others who care for our elders and our sick, eases the way with laughter and dignity along the last miles on the road of life.

On other days, he is a soldier in a war that goes on largely behind the closed doors of hospitals and nursing facilities like this one.

It’s the war against forgetting our parents, our aged, our people.

"Your mom is doing good!" Evans said to me the other day. "We want to keep her here."

"I do, too," I said, "If she wants to be here still," I add.

"She's not ready to go yet," he said. "You know when people want to go. They are done. She's not done yet. You'll see."

If anyone would know this, Evans would.

The bottom line is this:

Evans and other frontline workers is why my mom hangs on is comfort to her life of silence and absolutely present moment.

He is also the reason I look forward to visiting my mom. He makes me laugh, right there, sitting with my mom.

He helps create an atmosphere of dignity and love for all the souls who'd otherwise be forgotten or neglected, or worse. He looks at my mom and sees a woman who could be his own mother.

In his easy-going manner, Evans shows me how to love my mom in her silence, how to show up every day with courage and joy.

Thank you, #physicians #nurses #frontlineheroes #frontlineworkers.

#alzheimers #alzheimersawareness #alzheimerscare #endoflife #coachingpersonal #physicianwellness #immigrantstories #immigrationmatters