The Daily Visitor

THE DAILY VISITOR

Kind words can be short and easy to speak,  but their echoes are truly endless.“

Mother Teresa, (1910-1997) 

 

In an Asian hospital ward,

the visiting period was abuzzed

with concerned relatives and friends,

bringing fruits, and home-cooked favourites.

Unobstrusively, by the wall,

stood an old Christian clergy

in clergyman wear, with clerical collar,

both hands clasped in front.

 

Watching the people for a while,

He then placed himself on a chair

next to a patient with no visitor.

And, he just sat there, quietly.

 

As the patient tried to reach out to his cup,

he helped guide his trembling hands and cup

to the patient’s lips, and a hanky under his chin.

Then he offered the patient a peeled orange.

 

Another, was a terminal patient

who could not talk nor move.

Nobody visited him since admission.

This carer sat with him silently, serenely.

 

He was a daily visitor

for a few patients without visitors.

Be it a vagabond, or whose families

may be far in the rural and interior areas.

 

Kind words need not be ‘word’

for gestures can replace words.

Kind words/gestures need not be difficult

but it’s effects are long lasting and healing.