THE HEALING POWER OF A CHILD
David Trembley
October 1, 1988
Even before we finished the first hymn, I knew that taking Aaron Charles Hoffman with me to the nursing home had been a good idea. More faces than usual were raised and turned in my direction. There were smiles on more of them. A number of folks were actually singing!
Ministry in nursing homes has always been one of my favorite pastoral duties, in some sense precisely because of the challenge. Over the course of their long lives, nursing-home residents have heard and seen it all. Especially in their latter days, they have been subjected to many assaults upon their freedom and dignity. In consequence, they have built strong emotional armor.
At 16 months of age, with a cloud of wispy, blond hair, Aaron Charles pierced their armor. For the entire forty minutes of this Thursday-morning worship service, I carried Aaron in my arms. And just to make sure I had all the ammunition I might need, I also brought with me Aaron's two sisters: Rachael Ann, a 4-year-old blonde, and Elizabeth Eileen, a 6-year-old who had forgone kindergarten this morning "to go see the grammas and grampas."
In response to the children's presence, Anna, a resident who in all my previous visits had only chanted, "I'm hungry; I want some soup," now conversed about the kind of soup she would prefer. "Bean soup with a ham bone," she told me, "but of course, potato soup with a big chunk of polish sausage would also do quite nicely."
John, a 90-year-old who had never been more than polite, started talking with Mary, the children's mother, and told her more about his life in ten minutes than I'd been able to learn in three years.
Some of the nursing-home staff, who typically viewed the presence of the clergy as an opportunity to take a break, stayed for the service. ...
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