Hospital visitation

Svetlana came by yesterday morning to drop off her suitcase and some groceries, and then went to the hospital because she was on call. She couldn’t come to the service unfortunately, but we all went off to Knollcombes for the 10.30 combined service. I had invited Steve and Maureen to join us for tea in the afternoon, which they did, and I supplied hot cross buns – so it was a proper Good Friday after all! Very pleasant and relaxed afternoon chatting in the lounge.

This morning we put together a picnic lunch and took it to Plantation House. Svetlana was quite keen on seeing the tortoises. Did a short walk through the forest, but it was very damp and muddy, as it rained a little bit early this morning (the rest of the day was as hot as February!). From there we went straight to the pool, and Nick and the boys and Svetlana had a dip. The boys didn’t stay in too long because the pool was a bit cooler than they are used to – I don’t know how much longer we will be able to swim. Caleb’s bandage, which had been steadily coming off more and more, finally lost its waterproofing, so we took it off altogether. The swelling seems to have gone down a little and his belly button is definitely receding and looking a bit more like a belly button. I was quite pleased to see the improvement, and hopefully Caleb was a bit encouraged. It still looks very bulgy underneath, but we’ll see what Dr Kardam says about that on Tuesday. When we went to the hospital this afternoon for hospital visitation, I asked the nurses for another one, and Svetlana applied it at home. About the hospital visitation, we had it scheduled as part of our Easter services, and a group of about seven of us went. S stayed here and babysat (yippee). Nick and I sang twice, the same song, once upstairs and once downstairs. It was almost heartbreaking to see some of the elderly patients. I have been reading Leota’s Garden, about a very old lady and the events surrounding her life (a Francine Rivers novel), and I just wondered what goes on inside these old people. They have a lifetime of experiences and usefulness, and now here they are, too old to look after themselves, sometimes not able to speak, and I thought it so sad that they have now outlived their apparent usefulness and in some cases, they are just discarded. No one really cares about their wellbeing, although the nurses do look after them very nicely I’m sure. It just made me sad. We invited the visitation people back to our place for tea, since they had all come a distance and it seemed a long way to drive just for half an hour of visiting, and they stayed quite long. That made supper late, but it was chips and fish fingers, so easy enough.