For my Christian service this year I worked at Haym Solomon Nursing Home in Brooklyn. I went every Sunday afternoon with my friend and classmate Kenny. My job was to help prepare and work at the activities in the nursing home as well as transport the patients to and from the activity centers. At these activities, I would serve food to the patients, talk to them, and play music for them on the piano. The patients are very isolated in their rooms with only one or two roommates at most. With many not able to socialize much, the goal of these activities is to create environments in which the patients are able to break away from their normally isolated lives and have a little fun. The person who I will remember most from my work is a woman with a slight deficiency in hearing. Unfortunately, we never exchanged names, but the impact she made on me will be something that I will never forget. I first met her after one of my piano performances for …show more content…
For instance, the pure concept of the nursing home is care for the elderly directly aligning with the Catholic Social Teaching preserving life from “womb to tomb”. The care of the elderly in the nursing home supported the idea of inherent dignity in all people from being made in the image and likeness of God. Just because they are old does not mean that they lose that same dignity. Talking to people like the woman who could not hear well manifests the idea that everyone has worth even in old age, for she exemplified the wisdom and understanding that comes with age. Furthermore, the disabled patients were still quite able to have conversations and were very fun to talk to. Despite old age and disability, the patients were still people and treated as such. It is through institutions of care like the nursing home that show that groups of the needy can be cared for. The success of this care portrays an auspicious future in which all of the needy are cared