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Date: 4/24/2019
EAST LONGMEADOW – Sister Lea crouched down next to the petite woman in the wheelchair as she translated English into Lebanese – the woman’s first language. As the words flowed, the woman’s eyes brightened, and she eagerly responded to this reporter’s questions of what Sister Lea’s presence has meant to her.
“It meant a lot for her that I’m from the same country,” Lea translated for resident Josephine Hannoush. “She was very grateful to talk to me because I speak Arabic like her.”
Making a cultural connection is just one of the ways this slip of a nun has found to impact the lives the residents at East Longmeadow Skilled Nursing.
From taking the time to stop and talk with family members to translating for a homesick resident, to just “giving a moment” to a woman confined to bed and a Hoyer lift, Sister Lea has been providing comfort to residents, family and staff at since joining the facility in February.
It’s a long way from St. Joseph Monastery at the Tomb of St. Rafka in Batroun, Lebanon to East Longmeadow, but the Maronite Nun – who recently completed a Master’s degree in Pastoral Care at Virginia Commonwealth University in Virginia – was here for a purpose, to “work with the elderly and enrich their lives.”
Her ultimate goal – to take what she learns working with elders in long term care at facilities in the U.S. and Canada back to the nursing home run by her order in Lebanon.
Center Administrator Mike Marcus, who helped arrange for Sister Lea’s time at the facility, said making the nun a temporary addition to the staff – her time at Skilled Nursing ended with the month of April – was an opportunity for both the facility and Sister Lea to benefit.
“Her mission and goals and vision were, we felt, just a perfect match,” Marcus said. “We try to help people here and she wants to help people there – and learn from us at the same time she’s helping our residents.”
He noted that in her role as chaplain for the facility, Sister Lea has worked with short-term care residents, long term care residents and those in Skilled Nursing’s memory care unit, visiting “every room to see what they need.”
Sister Lea said her work has been less about praying with residents, or seeing to the needs of those that are Catholic, than it has been about learning to understand what residents truly need to improve their lives.
“We think we do a lot for them, and when you go and talk to [the elderly] you see that nobody is happy,” Sister Lea said. A published children’s author, Sister Lea related that when she shared with a elderly patient at another facility her hope to, in the future, write a “moral story” for children to teach them how to appreciate and connect with their elders, the patient quipped, “you’d better teach the adults before your teach the kids because it is the adults who underserve us.” The patient then explained that, instead of taking a moment to ask her about her night, or how she was that morning, her caregiver often rushed through getting her up and dressed.
“A small word can change the day of the elderly,” Sister Lea said. “By being [with the elderly] every day, I’ve gotten experience in their needs, and to understand that it’s not just medical needs.
“When someone tells you ‘you made a difference in my life,’ or ‘you made me happy,’ it is very rewarding to me,” Sister Lea said.
Eileen Lavin, who spent time with Sister Lea when the nun stopped by the room of her spouse, Lucille, in the facility’s memory care unit, said having the Sister at East Longmeadow Skilled Nursing has been an “Awesome experience.”
“We talk, we laugh, she’s just been a bright, bright effect,” Lavin said. “[Sister Lea] never leaves an encounter without asking, ‘Is there anything you need? Is there anything else I can do?’”
Ninety-one-year old Lorraine Leahey, a resident at the facility, said she didn’t want to let Sister Lea leave.
“She’s the most wonderful person in the world,” Leahey said. “You know what she did for me the other day? She cleaned my closet. She has been such a help to me. It’s been wonderful.”
Sister Lea herself called her time in East Longmeadow a “great experience.
“Your point of view changes, you learn to respect everybody talking to people from different religions,” Sister Lea shared. “I liked this experience I had with people from different backgrounds. I’m grateful that I had the fortune to come here.”
Marcus shared that Sister Lea wasn’t the only person whose attitudes were changed by her time at East Longmeadow Skilled Nursing.
“Sister’s presence here has had a profound effect,” he said. “Her example has been how we want to be.”