My first two days at the nursing home

Today is my day off! The pastor at the nursing home, who I'm working for, gave me a day off because there is no religious service today!

My days at the nursing home is going pretty well, I think. I'm in the pastoral care section. I became a regular pianist at their religious services, Tuesday 1:15 Bible Study, Wednesday 11:00 missionary service, Thursday 2:15 missionary service. My regular work hours are 11AM to 4PM, Monday through Thursday. I can get free lunch, I'm very happy about it! The nursing home is consisted of two parts, the nursing home and the adult daycare center. So lots of different people are living there, or coming there to get meal or rehabilitation or recreation. 120 residents live there, 150 staff works there, not including volunteers.

Now, I will try to write my first two days at the nursing home last week. It was much more than that, but I'll try to focus on the main topics!


On my first day at the nursing home, all things went quite amazingly well! I helped the pastor in her service. Before the service started, she left the church room and told me to play some music for the preparation for the opening. So I played one of the hymns with the piano. I was so surprised that the residents started to sing along my piano!!! When I finished playing, they said so happily, "I liked it! Oh, You can play the piano! Play it again! We can sing it again!" Then I played it again and this time I too sang with the piano. And then they shouted "You can sing and play the piano at the same time! How about it?" or something like that. I was soooooo happy to hear their words! I had lunch with them, and then made a chat with some of them at the Patio outside. A cherry tree bloomed in full!

I loved all of the people. They said my name again and again to remember it and some asked me to write it down! It was such a lovely time with them. However I have to admit it was so much to do in one day, so now I feel little bit tired when I got home. I think I'll get used to everything gradually!

I talked with my pastor and we decided my work hour. I work there from Monday through Thursday, 4 days a week, from 11AM to 4PM. She is so kind that she advised me to avoid rush hours. On Fridays I'm free, so I can have a long weekend! I think I want to help somehow for church on weekends, not every weekend maybe, so it'd be good for me to have a day off on every Friday!



On my second day at the nursing home, it was more amazing than the first day. On Thursdays, there is a service in the afternoon, from 2:15. I was surprised to see 4 pastors and an assistant pastor were there! Except my pastor, who is from Latvia, all ministers were black people. A male pastor wore a two-piece, one of the wemen pastor wore a nice dress, and another woman in a beautiful some African country's ethnic costume. We sang hymns sometimes by accapella other times with my piano. Someone started to sing or pray spontaneously, then my pastor brought a microphone to the person to get all people's attention. The atmosphere was filled with wonderful spirits. Especially, I was so impressed with the music. I know traditional hymns but the pastors sang the music very differently! They call it "jazzy!" I think I could learn their music while I'm here!

After the service, we talked with the residents who were in the room (a part of the dining room on 4th floor is used as church and after the service the partition is closed and the rest of the room is back to the dining room). My pastor and I noticed a woman lying down at the very back of the room. She was so thin and her knees bended unnaturally. I spoke to her "How are you?" She answered me, "Well, Ma'am." Her voice was so small and in high tone that I could barely catch.

There were her daughter and her great granddaughter beside her in silent. My pastor asked her daughter what is her favorite hymn. The daughter answered, "Amazing grace." My pastor brought a hymn book and we started to sing together. Surprisingly, the resident hummed with us and then sang with the words a little bit! Then other two women pastors came and join us one after another. For the next an hour, it was a small concert just for her! We sang one hymn and another as we talk with her. Her memory seemed to go forth and back. She talked about her girlhood like, "Before church, my mom say, wear clean cloth!, be nice! and I made many little girlfriends there. The pastor welcome me!" I couldn't catch all of her words but she seemed she was just in her childhood. She continued to talk. Her voice became bigger and bigger, which amazed me a lot!

Then I noticed her daughter started to cry, which made me cry. I just let my tears go down. Ten minutes later, I noticed her great granddaughter started to cry also. I stretched my left hand toward her in the back of the chair. The small girl grabbed my hand strongly. I asked her how old she was. She is 10, going to school, she answered. I thought I wanted to talk with her then. We started to chat at the back of the resident's chair as I was sitting on the floor. We talked about Japan, Japanese animation TV program, her Japanese friend. We became friends! I said to her, "Come again and talk! OK?" She said, "Yes!"

After one hour, as we left the room, the resident fell into sleep so peacefully! How amazing!

There are much more things to want to tell. But maybe next time!