[Magdalen] Respite care

[Marion Thompson]

On the subject, I am involved in a respite time involving 25-yr 
Whitevale friends and neighbours.  Once bright-eyed and funny and a 
talented weaver, Anna has descended into a frail, grey, staring and 
wordless state over the last years, now totally dependent for all her 
needs.  Gord gives her loving sacrificial care pretty much on his own 
and we have watched him age before our eyes.  He has arranged a week of 
respite care out of a newly-discovered entitlement of 100 days in a 
calendar year and he has gone to Victoria BC for a visit with old 
friends, his only break in all this time.  It happened that the only 
place he could arrange is right here in Port Hope, so I am toddling over 
each day to spend some time with Anna, who may or may not know at all 
who I am, perhaps a vaguely familiar face, perhaps not.  I'll be able to 
give him a more independent view of how it seems to have gone.

  I pray  this is the beginning of some longer term possibility, because 
to me they have passed that point of need.  I hope his break gives him 
the taste for more!

Marion, a pilgrim