I watched this woman walking a distance and turning into a house with a broom in her hand early in the morning.
A pedestrian passing by seeing me take a photo said, 'She is going to a home where there are two old people who need help to clean the house. She does this in a few homes for her livelihood and to care for old people'!
That was a new discovery for me. Th conversation led to a larger issue. There are at least forty senior citizens, living alone in that village, whose children are elsewhere! Some older people have moved into senior citizen's homes. The women in the village who need an additional income offer help to these senior citizens. Some women help with cooking, others with cleaning and washing, some others with personal care of senior people, some with shopping....
All these happen in most villages. Anna and I have been living here for six years. It is now we discover the challenges of existential realities.
The women who offer to help need an extra income and the senior citizens are desperate for help!
At the end of the conversation, this person who too is into his late sixty told me that he is one of the beneficiaries of this service by the women in the village, since he lost his wife five years ago. He lives in a large house built by his children, who live overseas and come once in two years to visit. So he gets to see one of the children and his family once a year for three weeks. He is loosing his eye sight. He goes to the local tea shop to hear someone read the news paper loudly to him as he no more can read even with a magnifying glass. He dreads the thought of having to be visually impaired further! He has two friends who too are retired who visit him once a week. He offers a meal for them as they too live alone.
I remembered then one of the interns working at the MOSC Medical college telling me that some senior citizens wait for the intern to come for them to hear the news papers read to them! This is one help the interns provide during their home visits.
A local parish priest stopped to greet this senior citizen, who told us that he came to visit him. They turned to his house which was only a few meters away.
This was a moment of new consciousness of the existential realities. We might be technologically and materially prospering...but the personal needs of friendship, support, care, etc come only from human companions!
M.C.Mathew(text and photo)
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