Dignity

It was only recently we at Reiser Relief discovered the same organization that runs Village of Jesus in Leogane, Haiti, the home for abandoned women that Father Reiser had an integral role in building, also has another abandoned women’s shelter in Port au Prince called Foyer Sacre-Coeur.

So today, armed with our directions from Sister Alta, we made our way to Foyer Sacre-Coeur.  Sister Alta heads both that home and Village of Jesus.  She is part of an order of nuns from Belgium that operates and cares for approximately 65 women housed between the two shelters.  Because Father Reiser was instrumental in completing their building project in Leoganne, the nuns gladly welcome us every time we visit simply because we are part of his organization.   We learned that most of the 25 women in the home we visited today have either been abandoned at the General Hospital in Haiti or been left on the streets to care for themselves because they have no family to look after them.  This wonderful group of nuns takes them in and provides them with meals, hygiene, medical attention and loving care for the rest of their lives and even gives each of them a dignified funeral and burial.  The love she and her staff have for these abandoned women and the passion they have for seeing to it that these ladies live out the remaining years of their life with respect was so evident during our visit.

The ladies greeted us with a song and then we had the privilege of washing their feet, rubbing lotion on them, polishing their fingernails and toenails, and bringing them peanut butter sandwiches and cookies for lunch.  After lunch, our interpreters once again treated us to music and song on the keyboard, and before we knew it, all the ladies were up dancing around the tables with us as their dance partners!  The tiny little lady I danced with was pathetically thin and frail, but her little feet never stopped moving.  At one point, I looked up, and Sister Alta was standing on the steps looking down at all of “her ladies” on the dance floor, and I cannot put into words the happiness I saw on her face.   My day was complete.  No, my trip was complete. 

What would our world do without the many Sister Altas that, without hesitation, dedicate their lives to providing cradle to grave care to individuals that would otherwise die forgotten and without dignity?  

God’s blessings to all these caregivers and to those they care for.

Ann