My mum had a caring heart and gave of herself as a volunteer to the female residents of a Senior Citizens Home in Georgetown Guyana most Saturday afternoons. She started by keeping a meeting on Saturday afternoons and providing sandwiches for the women. This extended to providing whatever need residents expressed. Men soon joined the group and this practice continued. She also visited residents in various wards, talked with them and prayed for them, and also provided whatever she could.
As mum grew older and could not provide this service, my brother and I started to provide lunch to the women only residents on mum’s birthday (5th October) as well as goodie bags. We took mum along on the day to give out the meals and she enjoyed this immensely. We soon extended this to providing lunch and goodie bags for all the residents at the Home.
As an adult I took the opportunity of caring for my mum as an elderly person who was diagnosed with having Diabetes. Due to this, I took full responsibility to interview and appoint her carers, set up a schedule of what meals she should be given, made arrangements for her Doctor’s visits and medication.
I scheduled my annual leave to travel down to Guyana to spend the time with mum 3 times each year. I would go for Easter, her birthday in October (when we would make arrangements to provide lunch to the Elderly Home) and at Christmas (I would look after mum so that her carers could enjoy the Christmas with their families).
Mum had the opportunity of visiting with me in England on 4 different occasions. These visits meant a lot to both of us and were thoroughly enjoyed. Mum passed away on 11 March 2012.
However, we decided to continue to provide the annual lunch and goodie bags to the residents on 5th October. It was thereafter changed to the anniversary of her death – 11 March and has continued to this day. In addition, we have since been providing lunch and needed items to four other Senior Citizen Homes in Guyana in recognition of my mum.
None of us can help everyone; but all of us can help someone.
Legacy of my Mother
My mum had a caring heart and gave of herself as a volunteer to the female residents of a Senior Citizens Home in Georgetown Guyana most Saturday afternoons. She started by keeping a meeting on Saturday afternoons and providing sandwiches for the women. This extended to providing whatever need residents expressed. Men soon joined the group and this practice continued. She also visited residents in various wards, talked with them and prayed for them, and also provided whatever she could.
As mum grew older and could not provide this service, my brother and I started to provide lunch to the women only residents on mum’s birthday (5th October) as well as goodie bags. We took mum along on the day to give out the meals and she enjoyed this immensely. We soon extended this to providing lunch and goodie bags for all the residents at the Home.
As an adult I took the opportunity of caring for my mum as an elderly person who was diagnosed with having Diabetes. Due to this, I took full responsibility to interview and appoint her carers, set up a schedule of what meals she should be given, made arrangements for her Doctor’s visits and medication.
I scheduled my annual leave to travel down to Guyana to spend the time with mum 3 times each year. I would go for Easter, her birthday in October (when we would make arrangements to provide lunch to the Elderly Home) and at Christmas (I would look after mum so that her carers could enjoy the Christmas with their families).
Mum had the opportunity of visiting with me in England on 4 different occasions. These visits meant a lot to both of us and were thoroughly enjoyed. Mum passed away on 11 March 2012.
However, we decided to continue to provide the annual lunch and goodie bags to the residents on 5th October. It was thereafter changed to the anniversary of her death – 11 March and has continued to this day. In addition, we have since been providing lunch and needed items to four other Senior Citizen Homes in Guyana in recognition of my mum.
None of us can help everyone; but all of us can help someone.
Written by: Quentina Layne
Image culled from: Herviewfromhome
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