Cleaning Julio

Here’s something I learned recently – when a person’s need is so great that you don’t know how to respond, ask God how you can meet them where they are and watch out for a small way to connect to their heart. For Julio, it’s a bath. This describes my relationship with him in the three visits I paid him. I wrote about the first visit (italicized) in an update letter a couple of weeks ago… (however in that update I mistakenly wrote Juan rather than Julio).

 

I quickly walked outside to a lady with a basket of basic goods such as soap,
toothpaste, toothbrush and shampoo. I bought them all and returned to find
Julio still sitting alone in his wheelchair where I left him. I wheeled him
into the bathroom and saw that his pain was too great for him to move himself
much at all. I helped to remove his clothing, which reeked of urine, and lifted
him to his chair in the shower. Each step along the way, I found that there was
really very little he could do by himself. In the end it was a team effort
getting him clean. I only wish that he had new clothing and didn’t have to
return his body to the filthy clothes he still wears. This experience renewed
my heart for the homeless.

About a month after this first encounter with
Julio, I went back to the hospital and found that he was still there! When he
saw me his eyes lit up and he started talking quickly in Spanish, smiling and
making bathing gestures. He showed me that he could now walk, with a little
pain, and said he still had about five weeks in the hospital. We sat and talked
for a bit, although a lot fell through the cracks. I asked Julio about his
family and his past and watched as he mumbled on for a while about what I
couldn’t tell. Tears filled his eyes and his voice broke. We sat in silence for
a little while, as I threw up paltry prayers in my head.

Yesterday I returned to see
Julio a third time. I noticed that he was still wearing the same clothes. I
asked him if he had bathed since that first day I met him and didn’t understand
his response. Regardless, it was clear he was due for another. The first time,
I struggled through it with the foul stench, rotting parts on his body and
pervasive flakes in his hair. This time, having seen the deep love he felt and
the joy he had in knowing someone cared about him, gladness overwhelmed me. I
also brought him a pair of clean clothes, which he gladly change into. He looked sharp considering
his circumstances.