Let's drink (tea) to life
2005-02-28
PURPLE paper butterflies flutter happily in the reflection of Elizabeth Scrimgeour's bright blue eyes. "It's easy," she says with her gentle smile. "I deal with living - not death."
Hence the lively butterflies that brighten up the Hospice office on the corner of Breda and Swartvlei Street in Paarl.
"We look at the quality of life. We help people to live before they die."
As a nurse for over 20 years, not only in South Africa, but also England and Australia where she passed each examination with honours, Elizabeth has worked extensively in psychotherapy.
She has always been involved with the living.
Elizabeth was personally exposed to death when she was very young.
"To start off with, I had to find a way for me to cope with death and then to find a way for others to deal with it."
Elizabeth graduated cum laude with a master's degree in pastoral therapy, on the meaning of life.
For her the most satisfying of her job now is to see the staff coping.
"People have to look beyond suffering. I know they are coping when they see joy in even the smallest thing, like the beauty of nature."
Since September, Hospice has 18 homebase carers, trained personnel in the field in Drakenstein. Volunteers (formal training is not a prerequisite) from the community are trained for three months.
There are more than 200 patients with Aids, cancer and other chronic illnesses.
Their biggest restraint, as with all non-government organisations, is the insecurity around finances, says Elizabeth.
Since she joined Hospice in Paarl five years ago, it has grown from two registered nurses who worked half days with 22 patients, to the current four full-day registered nurses and two social workers, 18 homebase carers and 50 volunteers for more than 200 patients.
Without the companionship offered to patients by the volunteers, the caring would not be possible, she says fondly.
Why was Elizabeth appointed CEO of Hospice?
A Paarl doctor answers: "She is the most compassionate person I have ever met. She understands not only her work as a nurse, but she understands people."
Elizabeth sees her new role as looking after the staff, the carers and the volunteers. She is there to "bring it all together."
She says: "Last week a sister had three of her patients dying in one day, so three families' pain to deal with.
"You have to be sensitive to each person's unique way of dealing with stress. At Hospice we do a lot of sharing and talking, and we do a lot of laughing.
"Some people want to be alone, others in company. Some of my staff go home, others sit under a tree. I am a major tea drinker.
"Our aim at Hospice is to help people cope."
Like Elizabeth, her husband also believes in the empowerment of people.
John is the estate manager at the Buffet Olive farm in Klein Drakenstein and is "an exceptional man" to assist her.
Elizabeth will not be able to stay seated behind a desk all day. She will make time to still do homecare, because people - all people - are her first love.
The telephone number for Hospice is 872-4060. From there the caller will be referred, according to need, to the available resources - be it for a nurse with medical expertise, a social worker, a home carer, or the companionship of a volunteer.
"We survive on the generosity of the community," says Elizabeth. "I want the people of Drakenstein to know that Hospice belongs to them."
And she takes a sip of her tea, while the purple butterflies flutter effortlessly in the breeze above her head.
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