Angela took a gift catalogue over to Corina, pulled up a chair and held Corina’s hand. Looking directly in to Corina’s eyes, she said ‘Christmas is coming’, and showed her a small Father Christmas. Corina looked at the object and then at Angela, with a lovely big smile.
Angela continued to hold Corina’s hand and nice and slowly said ‘Shall we pick some presents?’ and after a small gap ‘for your family’, and again Corina smiled at her. Angela then showed Corina a picture of one of her family and Corina chose a present out of the catalogue. Angela turned the pages of the catalogue and when Corina looked interested she would point to the different items until Corina showed lots of enthusiasm. When the right gift was found Corina’s eyes lit up, she smiled and made some body movements. They slowly repeated this process until a present was chosen for each person.
Angela has worked with Corina for the past 8 years, and knows when Corina agrees with something and is happy, so Angela knew when Corina did not like or want the pictures in the catalogue – Corina would look uninterested and there would be no smile. However Angela still checked that she had understood Corina’s choices by going back through the catalogue. Corina looked at Angela with no enthusiasm, until they came to the page with the item already chosen, and then she again looked in to Angela’s eyes and smiled. Corina knew exactly what she wanted to purchase for each member of her family.
On Christmas morning Corina was very happy when her family arrived. Her Mum, whose 91st birthday it was, brother Brian, sister-in-law and two nephews were all there. Corina seemed delighted as the gifts she had chosen and bought
were given out and unwrapped. Corina grinned at her Mum who was holding her hand, and then smiled and laughed with the rest of the family.
Angela and I stepped back and observed from the doorway: we weren’t needed for this part of the family celebration.
But we both agreed that this was a special morning, one we would never forget.
John Ashington
Senior Support Worker, Ellesmere Port