Oh Happy Day!
A friend of mine is a nurse who at one time worked at a
Hospice House. She was making her rounds
when the nursing assistant came out of a patient’s room very frustrated. The patient, an elderly lady was refusing to
allow the assistant to bathe her and was being rude and nasty to the
assistant.
My friend assured the assistant she would handle it. She walked into the room and with her
biggest, cheeriest smile and voice she said “Come on Ms. X, we are getting a
bath!” And without waiting for a
response she ushered the lady into the tub.
Now Ms. X’s daughter was there and she knew her mom could be
difficult, so she watched this wondering how this nurse was going to accomplish
the impossible. But the nurse just began
bathing her and singing cheerfully, “Oh Happy Day” by ***** Hawkins.
About 2 or 3 minutes into this bath and song, Ms. X began to
sing along with the nurse. The patient’s face brightened as she joined in. Together patient and nurse sang “Oh Happy
Day, When Jesus Washed My Sins Away” over and over until the bath was complete.
As the nurse was helping the patient to get dressed and back
to bed the daughter spoke to her, wide eyed.
“I can’t believe you got her to do that!”
“You mean bathe?” The
nurse asked.
“No, sing! My mother
NEVER sings!” the daughter answered.
“Well she sings very nicely!” The nurse said cheerfully.
And the daughter remained flabbergasted---“No! You don’t
understand….It’s not just that----you have to understand---my mother is
Jewish!”
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