Thought for the Week: Seeing the person
Connie Hazell considers the importance of seeing the person
Our old friend Sam had been in hospital for ten weeks. The hospital was the other side of London from his home. He had spent his birthday in hospital and it looked likely that he would spend Christmas there as well.
There had been tests, examinations and consultations, and yet more tests, but no diagnosis. His wife, who was far from well, was finding visiting increasingly difficult. His family, who were scattered around London, came in the evenings when Sam was tired. The other men in the ward were gravely ill, so there was none of the chat and banter that can go on when patients are recovering and looking forward to going home. We couldn’t imagine it, but our old friend, who was normally always cheerful and optimistic, was becoming dispirited and even ‘down in the dumps’.
Then one day into the next bed came Gary, who had been sent from a hostel for homeless men. He was thin and gaunt but his smile lit up his face as he shook hands with Sam and started to chat. Within a short while they discovered they both had a love of motorcycles and the sixty-year age gap melted away.
When Sam’s family next visited they couldn’t believe the change in him. In turn, Gary, having lost touch with his own family long ago, was intrigued with the three generations of Sam’s family when introductions were made. When Christmas came Gary had cards and presents from Sam’s family – the first for many years. Instead of being one of ‘the homeless’, this man had a name. He was a person.
In this fast-moving, fast-talking world of ours it is easy and convenient to lump people together: the ‘homeless’, the ‘disabled’, the ‘blind’, the ‘deaf’, the ‘mentally ill’ or ‘immigrants’. It is gratifying, though, to note that many charities are now including ‘people’ or ‘children’ in their titles.
For some years now Friends from my Meeting have been taking hot food and clothing to homeless people in a car park in the centre of town. As well as being grateful for food and clothing, the men have appreciated the courtesy, the interest shown to them and being known by their names.
In the well-loved gospel story of Zacchaeus, he, being a small man, climbed a tree to get a better look at the itinerant preacher everyone was talking about. He was one of the despised tax-gatherers. What a stir it must have caused in the crowd when Jesus called to him by name. He had become a person.
Sadly, our friend Sam is no longer with us, but now when the family look back with gratitude to the expertise and kindness of the hospital staff, they also remember Gary, one of the ‘homeless’ who, for a short time, shone a light in the darkness.
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