RETIREMENT HOME ST. LUCA, Bucharest

[tube]zhVZ5NBYaDo[/tube][:en]In the fall of 2011, I felt the need to organize a charity event for elderly people. I organized in the spring one for children and now it was seniors time.

I did some research and found St. Luca nursing home in Berceni, Bucharest. Back then there were 273 seniors in this place, with different health conditions.

I went to visit them and I was impressed. After this visit I wanted so much to organize something nice for them.

I was thinking to go to them on a Saturday of  November, along with other colleagues and friends and I didn’t want to go there empty handed. We wanted to bring them food, but also joy, hope, smiles, for a few hours at least, forget where they are.

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In order to make the food packages I needed money. 273 packages were a pretty impressive number, so I was thinking of a way to get the money.

I had the idea to organize an auction of cakes and cookies so that we can raise the money.

I proposed this in the department where I worked and not only my colleagues have enthusiastically accepted this, but they have told other people in other departments, and they came to me to say that they want to cook as well. Of course I enjoyed a lot the idea and I accepted it.

Cake auction was about to take place in the same department in which I worked and besides my colleagues, we have invited other departments to participate. I was fortunate to work in a multinational company and to have so many people helping me.

I have asked my colleagues to take pictures with them cooking, because before bidding I wanted to do a presentation and show these pictures and their wonderful result.

I wanted them also to know who they bid for, so I was at the retirement home and I took some interviews of the seniors and their lives. I had never done this before, but for everything there is a beginning, right?

I keept wondering how I will have the equipment necessary for filming. A few days after this thought, I met a friend who has a publicity agency and he is filming commercials. I asked if he could help me and he simply said, “yes.” I was astonished. He usually rents this equipment for thousands of euro, and he did this for me for free.

A few days after he sent me a car with two people and professional equipment much needed for these interviews.

You can find the interview at the end of this article. It is Romanian, I didn’t had the chance to translate it into English. I repeat, I had never done this before. For me it was fun and intriguing. It was something new, exciting and I took it as a serious play all the work of reportage. Hospital personnel believed that I was from a television and gave us all the attention offering us everything we needed. How can you not enjoy something like this?! Beautiful experience.

After I interviewed a few people, there was one last gentleman with whom I had to speak for the interview. I still remember his name: Nicolae Teodorescu. I sit down on a chair next to him, I put the lavalier on while he quietly waited for me to be ready. As soon as I started talking with him, I realized he had difficulty in speaking. He spoke very slowly and was difficult for him to pronounce the words. I never thought to stop the interview and I had the patience to listen to. This man impressed me the most of all people I interviewed.. And he inspired me too. I think from that moment I started to be aware how we inspire people by what they do. It certainly had an impact on what I do now.

He was a veterinarian doctor and he told me how passionate he was doing his job. He said he did not see himself doing something else. Then he talked to me about his wife, as he known her, as he sent letters before they got married and how they loved to walk along in the Herastrau Park, holding hands.

At his 78 years old, he started to learn English and to study intensively few hours each day. He impressed me so much that I was in tears. He asked me if I pity him and said no, that I admire him. Many people do not have the same strength like he had.

After shooting the videos, I left the asylum convinced that I was doing a good job with the charity event. I knew that I was doing that work for them and I had a good feeling about it. That feeling when you give without expecting anything in return. You give because you feel that way.

When auctions the day came, I have presented the video in front of my colleagues and told them about the situation in the retirement home, about how important it is to open to those in need and offer our help as we can.

A big thank you to all who were involved!

We bid the cakes, painted vases and cups made by us, handmade picture frames. In just two hours we managed to collect  5,000 lei!

With this money, we went shopping and in the evening we stayed after the program to prepare the packages for the elderly people. The day after we were supposed to go to them. Everybody was assigned a certain task in order t shorten the time we spent there, so we can go home and rest. It was 10 p.m. when we finished. I saw that night, when preparing these packages, unity, joy and enthusiasm. I was so proud of them.

The big Saturday was there. Few days before, I talked to someone (knew this person from a charity event organized in the spring for kids) and I got acquainted with a Romanian popular music singer named Elena Soare. After I contacted her, she agreed to come pro bono to sing for the elderly. We knew that elders like popular Romanian music.

I wanted to buy flowers and we went in the market and made many bouquets for everyone. I was inspired by my grandmother who loved the flowers. I knew they will enjoy it too.

With the money raised we could buy them a sofa too. The director of he retirement home told me that they needed one to put it in the hallways.

So on the big day, along with some colleagues and friends, we went to the asylum.

They were so glad when they saw us all there! I gathered everyone into a room and Mrs. Soare sang. We cried, we danced and we enjoyed their joy and that we can be together, even for a few hours.

The old ladies were ecstatic with joy at the sight of flowers, said thank you and kissed us.

For me that day was a very tiring day. I felt that I wanted a different kind of aging for them. Although the conditions were good, a hospital is a hospital. A hospital is not home.

But I had gratitude in my heart: I had done a good deed. I’m glad that I do not live only for myself and when I can I share my work with others.

I see with wonder after this event: as all happened, how everything bound. I never done anything from what I did then: the interviews, finding the equipment for it, the auction, finding the singer, organizing the events …

When you have something in mind, a thought that comes from the heart, everything flows (even if not always smoothly) and it happens for your own good, so that event takes place at its best.

I always thought that I am not alone on this earth and that I wanted to help those in need, those less happier as much as can, the way I feel. To close this article, a few words come to my thought about all this action: unity, connection, dedication, passion, love. That’s what this was all about.

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If you want to visit this elderly retirement place, it is located on 12 Berceni bld, Bucharest, inspide the hospital St. Luca, close to Bagdasar Hospital. There are many people who go there to their relatives or to people they actually don’t know and who do good to strangers. They speak to them, the bring them food, etc. One thing is certain: they need us and will certainly enjoy a good word, even from a stranger.