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Some may feel their contribution would pale in comparison to that of others but how would they know if they don’t get out there and do it! Those who hang back and don’t get involved may well shine in the realm of community service.
If you express your own feelings about caring and sharing, isolation and abandonment, others might decide to get involved and participate in being part of a change in your shared community, beginning within their own lives, with those near and dear, and with those who are near — the neighbour they really don’t know, the after school program that could use extra volunteers to help children with reading, the local hospital that is always seeking extra pairs of hands to do this or that, the community sponsored suppers that always need potato peelers and salad makers. The list of what you CAN do is endless. The list of what you COULD do rests with you. Mask ON!
We are a province of aging citizens coupled with a declining growth rate, though there has been an influx from other provinces in recent months. We must do all we can to welcome them. If you’re sitting home alone and are able to get out and about, DO it. Find out what’s going on in your community and see where you might fit. Ultimately, what stops you is YOU!
I reach out to my community through my writing, armed with the knowledge that my voice may give others the courage to finally speak up, to stand up and ask for help when needed. Within the parameters of my online presence, I make myself available to assist young parents with writing letters requesting assistive devices and services necessary to improve the quality of life for their youngster with disability, guiding them through the maze of often confusing jargon aka gobbledy-gook when they get another denial letter from an agency they thought would help them. The ‘blue book’ needs to be rewritten to accommodate the real needs of real people. Yet again, to repeat an oft-used phrase - ‘one size does NOT fit all!’.
The gift of availability can be transmitted from one person to another, bringing a community to life, whether online or in our daily, touch it, feel it, hear it lives. Mask ON.
All around us are folks who used to ask for help but felt they were imposing and stopped asking, plodding along — sometimes to their detriment. Plodded along until the day when the old man who lives across the street from you fell off a ladder while changing the battery in his smoke alarm. One of those ‘shoulda’ moments you missed. “I shoulda gone over to ask Mr. Jones if he needed help,” you said to yourself. Now he’s in the hospital with a broken hip, developing an infection. How long does it take to change a smoke alarm battery?
In these COVID times, bartering may be a way to help and be helped. My own physiotherapist has had to cancel sessions with me so he could meet the needs of another with issues more pressing. Staff shortages have impacted visits by home health care workers. Thankfully, I’m able to exercise independently – housework!! For those who cannot, perhaps a family member or caregiver might consult with a therapist to learn how to undertake a bare bones regimen for the patient in need of rehab assistance at home.
Living with disability is often not pretty; growing old is not fun. Asking for help is a tough pill but we have to swallow our pride and just DO it if we are to be safe. Will you DO your part in your community, on your street, to ensure that a neighbour in need stays safe? Perhaps that will be your next moment of 2022.
Carla MacInnis Rockwell is a freelance writer and disability rights advocate living outside Fredericton, NB with Miss Lexie, a rambunctious Maltese and Mr. Malcolm, the boisterous Havanese. She can be reached via email at Carla MacInnis Rockwell
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