Junior and Senior CROSS Members travel each week to A. Holly Patterson Geriatric Care Facilitiy in Uniondale, New York. We visit Unit 22 which is a ventilation unit comprised of patients who are bedridden twenty-four hours each day. Many of these residents rarely receive visitors and are often quite lonely. The unit is comprised of stroke, coma, and head trauma patients. We seek to provide conversation and some interpersonal connections with these wonderful people. Our service consists of reading aloud, playing beside Bingo, decorating the unit, and polishing nails too! Sometimes, we just talk and share ourselves with them.
Most recently, we decorated for Christmas and helped to spread some joy by making the area just a little brighter. We were also fortunate to receive donations from Mrs. Klimkowski and Kellenberg Girl Scout Troop 1288 who crafted a bevy of happy reindeer, sparkling snowflakes, and merry wreaths. Additionally, Mrs. Marconi and Mrs. Riiska’s Senior Sodality blessed us with stunning red and green Christmas throw pillows. These delightful donations are sure to be great crowd pleasers when we arrive with them today.
We are so blessed as we enter into these relationships at A. Holly Patterson with such wonderful people. We recognize that they mirror Christ’s presence and allow us to enter into the corporal and spiritual works of mercy.
