A Bowl of Soup and a Kind Word

This is Peter Rosenberger. This is your caregiver minute. You know, sometimes it's hard to know what to do for a caregiver.

And sometimes it's hard for caregivers to know what to ask for. And I look back at things in my life and I remember one event that stood out more than others and I was on the way back to the hospital. I'd gone home to do some laundry for my wife, taken her up some clean gowns.

Our kids were away at grandparents while she was having this particular surgery. And friends of mine asked me to stop by their home on the way back to the hospital. It was right on the way. They said, come by, we've got something for you. So I pulled in, I went into their home, knocked on the door, and they brought me in and they led me to the kitchen. And there at the table was a bowl of soup and some cornbread and a glass of tea.

They said, you sit down and you eat. Your wife is okay. She's at the hospital. They're looking after her. She's fine. Your kids are with grandparents. They're looking after them. They're fine. We're going to stand guard over you.

You are safe and we're going to look after you. Eat some soup, have some cornbread, and have some tea. A very simple meal, which I absolutely love because I was raised in the south. And I love vegetable beef soup and cornbread and tea.

And I sat there. It's hard to really explain how I felt because I rarely had such a moment. So much so that in all my years of caregiving, 35 years plus now, that one event stands out as one of the most poignant moments when somebody cared for me.

Sometimes caring for a caregiver is not very exotic. It's just a bowl of soup, a quiet meal, just to be still. I'm reminded of the story of Elijah when he was on a long journey and he fell asleep and then the angel woke him up and said, here's a meal. Eat it. You've got a longer journey to go. Here, eat this. Sometimes angels just give us a meal. You know? At least they did for Elijah and those two wonderful people that did that for me.