30 May 2025

It is always a delight for a retired minister to hear that  initiatives begun during his ministry have become thoroughly embedded in the ongoing life of the congregation. The other day, I received an e-mail from the person who is running Daybreak at New Kilpatrick Parish Church.

I was minister there from 1999-2010. In 2004, we set up a group for people with dementia.  We took a whole year to work out how best to set it up with Mary-Catherine providing much needed advice and, of course, training for the first volunteers.

The key to its character was in our initial decision not to make any distinction between those who had dementia and those who did not. Everyone  was an equal member of the group. The group is still running and is celebrating its twenty-first birthday shortly.

We were asked to send a special memory for people to read on the big birthday. One of my most vivid memories was from a Daybreak summer trip to Ross Priory on the bonnie banks of Loch Lomond. It was around the end of June 2009.

About thirty people associated with Daybreak took the bus there for a refreshing lunch and welcome respite in the beautiful grounds around the house. I saw one elder slide down a chute and land on her bottom! One person forgot how to get off a see-saw! Others went paddling in the loch. Two were on the swings - and they didn't break!

Others walked, sat on benches, chatted comfortably with each other, held hands, hugged, sat in a peaceful silence. Looking on, you couldn't tell who had dementia and who did not, such was the integration of the group. Divine consolation for us all!

That  memory has lived with me over these last sixteen years and I thank God to have been able to be with people of such rare humanity, understanding and compassion. It is for these reasons, I am sure, that Daybreak continues to make an impact in the community. May God bless its invaluable  work and keep the celebrations going!

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