It’s been hard for me these past weeks. Well, it has been hard for family and friends. My grandmother is in the hospital. She has cancer. Those of us who have been there find it very difficult My grandmother has been the backbone of the family. She is our strength and the contact to our roots. You might say she is our lifeline. It is hard to imagine a person this strong suddenly appearing weak in any way. It had most of us in tears with uncertainty.
A tumor is interfering with her spine and she seems weaker. To be truthful we expected her to die because seeing her in such a weakened condition compared to her normal strength was almost too much for us. The situation is still uncertain and this hurts.
The cancer unit was amazed at us and other people. They said they have never seen the amount of people who came in to visit our grandmother. They commented about the care we gave her—24 hours around the clock. One comment during this was telling. They told us that a lot of patients were left alone and because of this they eventually gave up and died. Our presence gives her support and strength.
This to me is just the Cree way. We do not leave our own to die alone. We know the value of family and the ties to each other. We know the strength of caring and how it affects getting well.
This brings me to another incident that happened while I was in the hospital. One night about two in the morning the nursing staff came to see me. There was a problem down on the 14th floor. It was a Cree woman from Nemaska. She spoke no English or French, only Cree and she was freaking out. She had no one to talk to and to communicate with. She didn’t really understand where she was and what she was doing there. If it had been during the day she would have had a translator and someone to explain this and reassure her. My Cree is limited but I tried. I could only hold the fort until my mother arrived. She calmed her down and everything was all right This was merely a continuation or an extension of those Cree values I talked about before. As the nursing staff told me and my mom about their appreciation of what we did, an idea was born.
They told us a translator is available during the day but not at night I guess there is no money for that. To have this happen will require some sacrifice but not much if we all act as Crees. It would require the Cree-speaking people to put themselves on call to act as translators during the night. The last time I looked at the student lists there were 65 Cree students in the area. Also there are many Cree workers at Cree organizations around Montreal. For example, the GCCQ, CSB, CSSHB and Cree Construction, to name a few.
This takes the number of potential volunteers to an acceptable level. If a lot of people volunteer then you would be on call only one night every two months. The odds of you ever being called upon to help would be very high. If called, you would first talk by telephone to the person and if this didn’t work then you would go to the hospital. Hopefully, the hospital or the Cree Health Board will consider paying for your taxi to and from the hospital. They have done this in the past.
To help out call me or anyone at The Nation and we’ll pass your name along and work towards creating a schedule. This program could start in September.
While you are considering this, you could think of one thing that I thought of. Would you like the idea of your grandmother or other relative sitting in the dark unable to communicate? I’m not trying to make you feel guilty, but we will all feel better if we can carry on the tradition of caring for each other, the tradition of continuing our Cree values and lifestyles.
If you are Cree-speaking and consider this type of action valuable call The Nation at (514) 272-3077. We can respect and help our Elders. It’s all up to us.
