Mennonite Central Committee News Service
(5)
August 6, 1971
VSer MOONLIGHTS IN ATLANTA
by Lois Dyck, VS, Atlanta
Legs in traction sporting autographed
casts, tubes intertwining through the bars of the beds, fingers
solving jigsaw puzzles and Uncle Wiggly games--it was evening
at Grady Hospital's Children's Ward, Atlanta, Ga.
"Apple juice or chocolate milk,
honey?" Charlene Gerber, a Mennonite Central Committee volunteer
in Atlanta, was making the rounds, wheeling the drink cart to
thirsty patients. Kids, previously hypnotized by the television
set, welcomed the "lady in green" who would entertain
them with cool games and conversation. Exciting events
of the day were related to her:
"Hey, I had a x-ray!"
"Ma mothah was heah!"
"Lookit my hand in cement!"
(a plaster of paris imprint from the morning's play activities).
As was customary, the changeover
of children was constant and there were always new occupants
in the beds. Except the corner bed, where the white form of a
young boy had lain for almost a year. He had been injured in
a car accident that had claimed the lives of his parents and
after being in a coma for seven months, his control of motor
and speech responses was nil. As usual, one eye was open, semi-focused
on the eternal flutterings of the television. Charlene played
with his arm for a while. Its spastic movement was the only evidence
of his awareness. After she left, its movement continued.
After experiencing a year of teaching
healthy, lively third graders at MA Jones School, Charlene found
life on Children's Ward a startling contrast. Previously, skinned
knees resulting from quick descents from the school's monkey
bars had been an occasion for tears. Now at Grady, Charlene was
comforting girls who were suffering from burns, their itching
bodies encased in casts and the slow healing process of skin
grafting a reality for many months to come.
Count the generation gaps between
a baby discovered abandoned in a phone booth and a 105-year-old
great-great grandmother actively hustling around in a wheelchair.
As a moonlighting MCCer, Charlene is involved in two volunteer
capacities. After feeding babies at Grady Hospital she can be
found promoting arts and crafts at Wesley Woods Health Center.
Some of the more handicapped "old folks" have volunteered
to teach Charlene crafts they are no longer capable of performing
themselves. In the process, tales of the past find their slot
in the hot history of the South as events of the Civil War are
related by these offspring of slave owners.
Alpha and omega, as demonstrated
on the human scale, is evidenced by the cycle of life and death
that Charlene is exposed to in Atlanta. Despite the inevitable
revolving of the wheel, the comment of a lonely, wrinkled grandmother
reveals her appreciation for these brief encounters: "Thank
you for being with me, Miss Charlene."
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