Valentine Delivery

Yesterday after church, the Sunday school kids visited a local nursing home to deliver Valentines. They made lots and lots of Valentines and when we got to the center, they went around in groups of twos and threes to deliver Valentines to the residents.

Jupiter didn't say much...she did hand out some Valentines but didn't really talk to anybody. We weren't there long, so she didn't have much chance to get used to the environment. After we had visited all the rooms, we went to the dining room and delivered Valentines to the rest of the residents while they were getting ready to have lunch.

Which is when I had the flashback to the baby home. I saw a plate with pureed meat and mashed potatoes and I was right back in the baby home, getting ready to feed Jupiter her pureed meat and mashed potatoes and broth. And I looked around at the environment of the nursing home some more, and the similarities jumped out at me. A few residents had visitors, but Jupiter asked me later, after we got home, why the people in "that place" (she couldn't remember what it was called) had dolls and stuffed animals. And I told her that most of those people don't get to see their families very often, and the dolls and stuffed animals help them feel less lonely. The explanation made sense to her, but I remembered again how lonely my baby must have been in the baby home.

Father Tim asked the kids, before we left, if anybody would be interested in coming to visit the nursing home again, and Jupiter's hand was the first one in the air. All the other questions I had to hold her hand up to answer, but not that one. If she were to come out of her shell, I can only imagine what a ray of light she would be to them...she really does love older people.

Later on Sunday, we were looking at a picture hanging on my living room wall of my Great Nana. Nana died in 2001, but I have a picture of her holding a baby on the day she received the Boston Post Cane, so we talked about Nana, and how she loved holding babies, and got into an interesting conversation somewhere along the lines of:

"Where is your Nana?"

She went to heaven and her body is buried in the ground.

"Where?"

In Peru. (Maine. )

"Can we go see her?"

If you want too. We can leave flowers there. Maybe some chrysthanthemums.

"I think roses are better. How is she in the ground?"

When someone dies and doesn't need their body anymore, we put the body in a special box and bury it in the ground.

"What kind of box?"

"A special very heavy box."

"Why?"

"I don't know. I think it helps keep the bones from coming out of the ground."

"Why?"

"Because when the gound gets really cold, and then gets warm again, over a long time, lots and lots of years, things like rocks and bones can come back out of the ground."

"Can we dig up the bones, because I would like to touch them."

"No. They have to stay in the ground."

"Why?"

"Because it's disrespectful to the bones to dig them up."

"Why does it bother the bones?"


etc......