Dear friends of Ombre e Luci,
I subscribed to "Ombres et Lumière" during the years when I was a catechist, working especially with very difficult young people. Now I have been here in a nursing home near Rouen for nine years. I myself have considerable health problems and live with many handicaps. We elderly people accumulate quite a lot of them: our eyes, our ears, our ability to walk, and above all our minds.
Some elderly residents are abandoned not only by their families but also by the other residents who, evidently, find nothing of interest in them. There are those who no longer even know who they are or where they are: I feel drawn precisely toward these unhappiest people to give them what I can—a look of friendship, a gesture of tenderness, a kind word.
What a feeling it is to hear someone say: "Thank you for noticing me." Then I understand that I need help in order to help others, and I renew my subscription to your magazine.
- V. P., 2001
(From O. et L. no. 133)
- See also: Uncle Giorgio