Grandma’s witness
I drove the Troopie around to the dormitory to collect three girls who had asked about visiting an elderly relative in the Old Timers’ Retirement Village. It’s only a three-minute trip so soon we were walking into the open space dining area. The girls quickly located Iris. She was in her wheelchair, fast asleep, and parked up against the table waiting for dinner.
The girls talked loudly in Pitjantjatjara, as Iris is quite deaf, and soon Iris woke up and started chatting to them. I immediately saw the sunshine in her face, a treasured moment in the daily routine of life in a retirement home.
Soon the dinner tray arrived. One of the girls helped mash up some of the food. Iris asked for some toast; a kind-hearted nurse thought she said ‘salt’! The toast eventually arrived and Iris folded her wrinkled, feeble hands and bowed her head. Immediately the three girls did the same and together, speaking in their heart-language of Pitjantjatjara, they asked God to bless the food.
What a perfect witness by this sick and ailing grandma! What a moment of learning for these young teenage girls.
Heavenly Father, bless each of these your treasured children. Amen.
