We have reached the half way mark of 2017. So much has happened during this period, and we celebrate the good, as we also reflect on the bad. Trying as hard as we possibly can to learn from any mistakes or bad experiences. Elsewhere in this edition, we narrate and bring our focus on the joys and successes we have achieved at Pevensey Place since the beginning of the year. We created a lot of happy memories and we are sure these will be narrated to many in many different ways during the holiday period. We can only be thankful to the Lord, the dedicated staff and indeed the involvement of parents, in all this. Pevensey Place would not be what it is without the involvement of many dedicated parties.
For the Pevensey Place project brings together the efforts of our Underberg community, the staff who are employed to look after the Residents, donor organisations who support in various ways, Churches, The Sani Round Table to name just a few, and parents and relatives of the residents who live at our home. This forms a healthy and synergistic effort aimed at ensuring that we maintain Pevensey Place as a happy home for all the Residents, and a happy place for all working with the Residents to be in as they carry out their work.
Our call in this edition is to all parents, relatives and friends of any Pevensey Resident to stay involved with them. Maintaining contact and showing that you care for them makes such a huge difference in their lives. They are lovely human beings who live to love. And indeed they also thrive on being loved and being shown that they do matter. Our task as relatives or parents should be to ensure we fulfil this, and celebrate with them when they have their special days. To those who make the efforts to come up and take their loved ones out for birthday lunches, or take them home to celebrate with them, we say thank you. You are special.
We still have days in our lives. Though we never can tell how many. We still can make note of all the special days and programmes which form the life of our Pevensey Place Residents, and make plans to bless them with our involvement. They will appreciate life even more, if we take some time to celebrate their special moments and occasions with them.
A quote from Chinua Achebe, a Nigerian author, in one of his novels comes to mind; “We are better than animals because we have kinsmen. An animal rubs its itching flank against a tree, a man asks his kinsman to scratch him.”
As the wheels of time continue to turn, and months become years, we will need each other more and more. And moments and times we share with those closest to us, are what we cherish the most.
Rodreck Nyathi