"It Takes A Village!"

eREPORTApril-May-June 2020 T h e H u m mi n g b i r d T r u s t “It Takes A Village To Provide Enduring Care”

"Saturday, June 13, 2015, Harrison Hope Wine Estate, SOUTH AFRICA. Start of Day. My quiet hour with my one cup of the day began in solitude as usual; then Janet appeared from our bedroom in The Milkhouse. Her first comment was about a headache, a bad headache. She had a troubled expression showing her pain so I immediately suggested she take some Advil and get back in bed for awhile. She did. Sometime after 11a she appeared again and I remember meeting her in the narrow space between the Oregon pine cupboard and Mema’s old oak writing desk near the bathroom door. The headache was worse and she seemed confused. As I began to question her she struggled to answer my questions. She struggled so clearly that I asked her a totally redundant question! Our black lab Jenny was standing with us at the time and I pointed down to her and asked Janet, “What is the dog’s name?” Her halting attempt and confused look was alarming. She could not find the answer. “What is my name!” Again, she could not find the answer. I asked her for her mother’s name and then for her own name. She could not answer! She pointed out concerns of difficulty with her walking. The oddity and urgency of her condition thrust both of us to a level of concern bordering on panic. We were alone on the farm in Africa on a Saturday morning thirty miles away from the nearest hospital and/or doctor’s office."

So began the stroke journey five years ago to this month, our journey back to joy! From that shocking Q&A session, standing alone together, bewildered, in our Milkhouse home on Harrison Farm in South Africa until this 5th anniversary Janet and I have not enjoyed the pleasure and treasure of an expressive conversation. Her speech has never been regained. Just like that on a cold Africa morning in June our journey in one world passed away and a journey through another alien world began. There is no written record of that five year journey. When I think of writing that travel log myself I picture an old Road Monk hunkered over an antique writing table in the green glow of a single lamp with a Waterford crystal in one hand and a Traveling Writer fountain pen in the other, chiseling away at the form of a story he cannot shape. At other times the writing task seems as unlikely as a soldier under fire setting up his writing gear in the midst of a raging battle thinking he will record the event while the lead flies and the blood dries. For now the journal fragments lying on a shelf back on a farm in Africa is all the written record of our shifting worlds that I am aware of. Add a few oral tradition tales the aging Road Monk has been able to share from our foxhole on the front lines and that’s about it for extant records."

So begins my eREPORT for June 2020, five years after Janet's massive stroke back in South Africa. 27 years in South Africa, years of ministry and service in rural Xhosa villages, 10 years of work establishing "The First Wine Estate In The Eastern Cape," Harrison Hope, as well as the parameters of our 37 year friendship together as a working couple in all of our life pursuits radically shifted to the "post stroke" parallel universe we currently occupy.

As we pass this 5 year mile marker I have set my sights on building a new community of compassion and care that will add strength and stability to the uninterrupted care of my dear Janet. I established The Hummingbird Trust in September 2019 as an instrument where a new community of care partners could invest attention, communications, resources, and encouragement. I would like to invite you to "join our Village!" Become a resident, a contributing team member, and a familiar face "Linked In" to our journey back to joy. Regardless of your present location you can be part of our Village of Enduring Care. You can make our journey back to joy far more successful than it will be if we are challenged to make this trek alone.

First, go to our personal, US tax deductible donation page online. www.worldoutreach.org/06. Make an investment in our journey and become an active resident in our Village. Second, email me at [email protected] to establish a channel of communications that will create real community assets that are seldom fleshed out in online/digital/social media formats. "It takes a Village!"

Over two decades on Linked In, resulting in 11,000 Connections, I often wondered what could possibly come from the time and attention invested. Little did I know that I would one day be faced with the task of populating a Village, our Village. Take BOTH steps now and add something personal, powerful, and enduring to your full and busy life. Go to www.worldoutreach.org/06, from South Africa, from England, from all of Europe, from India, from China, from Australia, from the USA, and from all the other corners of the globe where you are chiseling out your stories and forging dreams on coal faces others may never know about. Then email me, Ronnie Vehorn, at [email protected] and invite the Hummer and me to be contributing residents in your Village.

Life is a team sport! Enduring care is a team sport! Your success in your unique dream and ventures will depend upon a team. "It takes a Village!" So, let's make one together!