This Christmas, as many of you know, we wanted to make Christmas Hampers for the thirteen elderly in Tarnicheni’s Care Home. So we began asking around what other’s thought would be a good gift to put into the Christmas Hampers. Then we went out with those ideas and the residents in our minds and did A LOT of Christmas shopping. We went around the shops, thoughtfully picking what will end up in those thirteen special Christmas Hamper that we hoped would bless and be of usefulness to the elderly this winter.
Those carefully thought of items were a warm blanket, a fluffy hot water bottle, some cozy socks, a bag of sweets, a few nice lip balms, a nail caring kits, a packet of earbuds, as well as a couple of nice smellies like soap, face wipes and body sprays. Then we took time to write each resident a hand-written Christmas greeting.
We have been told that it is very common that after the elderly are placed in this particular Care Home they are barely, if not ever visited by anyone. With this in mind, our desire for this trip was to make the residents of Tarnicheni’s Care Home feel loved, valued and appreciated.
As we arrived, all the residents that could, came to welcome us in with big smiles. The Director of the Home gave us a chance to say to the residence that Christmas Hampers is our way of saying, “Merry Christmas and that God loves and cares for them.” Before we had even given the Christmas Hampers, one of the elderly ladies began to cry. Later she said that she was crying because it had really touched her heart that someone had come to visit them. Then she looked inside her Christmas Hamper and began to really cry. This sweet lady told the Director of the Home that she, couldn’t believe that we had not only came to visit, but these gifts aren’t small and to her it looked like each item had a lot of thought put into it. That we had really thought of what they would need or want, which she said, “Really blessed my heart.”
The Director asked Adonna to go to the other residents who couldn’t come to the main community room. Adonna went to a man where he was painfully thin and ice cold as he only had a thin sheet as a duvet. We are so glad that he now has a warm blanket and a hot water bottle from his Christmas Hamper. Then Adonna went to one lady who was so shocked by the Christmas Hamper that she got choked up and grabbed Adonna’s hand to kiss it as a thank you.
Thank you to those who have made it possible to reach the elderly in Tarnicheni’s Care Home with the love of God; it truly made their day.