Hospital chaplain Jeremy Rice
Hospital Chaplain Jeremy Rice urges young and old alike to talk more about ‘ageing’ to help people embrace the enormous challenges that come with this stage of life.
“It’s not all bleak in old age. There are special times, family times, pleasures, memories and things we can keep enjoying.
“But it’s hard for the younger generation to understand the enormity of the journey the elderly face – the most challenging stage of all.
“Thinking about it, talking about it can help younger people to understand a bit what it’s like. And it helps older people to understand more about themselves.”
Jeremy has visited the sick, dying, grief stricken and those who care for them, in hospitals, aged care facilities and in their homes for the past 10 years.
He is compelled by 1 Peter 3:15: Always be ready to give an account to anyone who asks you about the reason for the hope that you have in Jesus, and do so with gentleness and respect.
“I meet and talk with a lot of older people and their family and carers.
“It’s heartbreaking at times. There are people struggling with loss of independence, falls, a catalogue of medical conditions and pain; people living alone, or worried about not being able to live at home.
“There are families worried about elderly parents or grandparents; carers becoming exhausted; loved ones making decisions about nursing homes.”
Jeremy says old age has been touted as the golden age, but it’s not the golden age for everyone.
“It’s also been said that ageing takes courage. To preside over the disintegration of your own body, or to watch the same process taking place in a loved one, requires a kind of heroism.”
One development that Jeremy has observed and regrets, is what he calls the medicalisation of ageing. “One of the most dreaded diagnoses is Alzheimer’s. In a previous era, we might have become old, slower and forgetful. However, now we are more likely to be defined by a checklist of things we can’t do.
“Medical research is important, but so is learning more about holistic approaches to ageing and Alzheimer’s and seeing it as part of what it means to be human – an ageing human.”
Jeremy says that, while old age and dementia in particular can seem as life-minus, relationships remain the meaning of life.
“One thing I’ve noticed several times is that, though a person may be in a world of pain and difficulty, if they reach out graciously to others, with a word of care and interest, it can somehow bring them healing and blessing. They blossom.
“I think that is the way God wired us. It is in giving that we receive.
“Relationships are the meaning of life and the ultimate is relationship with our Creator God. We fall short of his righteousness so he sent his Son. Jesus came and died in our place and rose again.
“If we trust in Him we are forgiven, adopted and He will never let us go.”