"Love means helping other people no matter what." Tawana Jackon, housekeeper, Baptist Hospital.
Organizations and important ideas always have what are called "Founding Stories." These tales exist as the true parables of meaning.
The golden thread of Radical Loving Care was spun thousands of years ago. I coined the modern day application of God's Love as a way to adapt this energy for caregivers - to remind all caregivers that we hold the golden thread in our hands. Along with this came the development of Healing Hospitals and hospices.
Like the parable of the Good Samaritan, founding stories are often about ordinary seeming, everyday events, not big, dramatic rescues. It is often in the unseen acts of kindness where we discover Love's expression most poignantly.
Here is one of the key founding stories of Radical Loving Care. It was told to me more than a decade ago by a housekeeper on staff at Baptist Hospital when I was president there.
"Last night," she told me at lunch in the hospital cafeteria, "I was mopping the floor outside a patient's room on the seventh floor. It was about 10 p.m. The patient was an old man. He was confused and kept crying out. He was calling for his daughter. I had seen his daughter leave way back at the end of visiting hours.
"The man sounded so sad. I looked down the hallway and the nurses looked very busy. So, I put down my mop, walked into the patient's room, and took his hand in mine. I think maybe the old man thought I was his daughter. Anyway, as soon as I took his hand, he calmed down. Within a minute or two, he fell asleep. So I went back out in the hall and continued mopping.
"Is this what you mean by loving care?" she asked me.
Needless to say, it is. Why?
The housekeeper heard someone in need and she brought her Love to meet that need. In so doing, she took a risk. Some supervisors would punish a person like her for stepping outside her "job description." In fact, this kind of punishment happens all the time. Far easier for the housekeeper, a veteran, to ignore the crying man and continue her work. After all, as an eight-year veteran, she had heard patients calling from their room many times.
Note that the housekeeper gave Love with no expectation of thanks or any other response. Consider also that the housekeeper did not give any medication or other "treatment" except her kindness.
The Love expressed by this housekeeper symbolizes what Radical Loving Care establishes as the norm in a Healing Hospital or hospice. Instead of a rare occurrence, loving expressions are common. Actions like the housekeepers, consistent with the parable of the Good Samaritan, are what happens when an ordinary culture becomes a loving culture.
What are the stories you encounter that symbolize Radical Loving Care in your world? What is the difference, if any, between these stories and other encounters you see in the place where you work?
-Erie Chapman
