"In The Home for Old Women." In other words, this is a retirement or nursing home. We don't know who the "old woman" is, but she has her tiny room, which doesn't have much of a view. I get the feeling she has brought the last few things of her home that will fit into her allotted space. She was never wealthy. The chairs are straw, not cushioned as they would be if she'd had a fine home. They are lined up against the wall. Maybe while she sits she remembers when the chairs were placed around a table where she served lovely meals from her dishes. We see the last of those dishes piled up, some plates, cups and saucers, a pitcher, a serving bowl. There are a couple of pictures on the wall. It's a rough room. The curtain is sagging and thread bare. There's no real closet only a space curtained off behind her.
She's taken off her heavy wooden shoes and placed them on the small worn rug. She's doing some sewing — maybe mending her own clothes or trying to earn a little money. Is the room cold or drafty — she's got a shawl around her shoulders and neck. We might wonder if she's outlived everyone else or if her children and grandchildren have moved faraway. Does she live in a silent world of no visitors? There are countries (including our own) where loneliness is said to be epidemic. I used to offer Mass in a nursing home and every Wednesday when I arrived, I'd find the lobby filled with residents. I learned later that the folks sat there hoping the next person through the door would be someone who had come to visit them.
I was told about an Asian family whose elderly grandfather could no longer be taken care of at home and so the family placed him in a nursing home. But all the members of that family relocated so they could visit him every day and bring him the food they had prepared at home.
"Is everyone, everything gone? What then?"
St. John of the Cross
St. John of the Cross
"What will take place on the other side when all for me will be overturned into eternity; I don't know. I believe, yes, I believe only that a great love awaits me."
St. John of the Cross
