unwanted, unloved, uncared for, forgotten

"Being unwanted, unloved, uncared for, forgotten by everybody, I think that is a much greater hunger, a much greater poverty than the person who has nothing to eat."  Mother Theresa

I think about this quote a lot.  I thought about it when I got a call from a senior yesterday, she wanted to know if anyone was going to give her a Christmas present this year, because she didn't think she was going to get any.  I told her, we did indeed give gifts to seniors but there was no way for me to know if she was on the list.  Five minutes later I walk down to our lobby where we are collecting the gifts, and I see a senior holding a gift she took from the donations.  She looked at me guiltily and asked if she could have one, because she too, had no one to give her a gift this year.


My first reaction was disgust.  These people have selfishly missed the point of the holiday.  They are senior citizens, but they act more like children in their greedy obsession with getting gifts.  These thoughts tugged at me for the better part of a day until I realized that maybe I was completely missing something big.  Perhaps they didn't want a Christmas present at all.  I think all they really wanted, was to simply be remembered, someone to acknowledge there very existence in this world as a human being.


I am on my way to visit a client who's wife died on Sunday.  He called me to ask if I could come get her wheelchair.  "She never got a chance to use it" he told me between sobs.  He was was struck, because the person whom he loved more than anyone else in the world was gone.  The person that knew him and valued who he is, is no longer on this earth.  He no longer had this physical being to love and be loved by.


And then I think about the orphans.  Left at the gates of an orphanage, like so many others.  Parents are dead, and family members can no longer afford them.  The only person that really knew them and loved them, are now gone.
Can you imagine that feeling of
being unwanted,
unloved,
uncared for,
forgotten by everybody.