Misericordia
[SOFT MUSIC PLAYING]
I felt God's presence. I felt that this was God's work. And I knew that I would never, never have to do it alone. And from the day I walked in there, the right people have always been in the right place at the right time.
I'm in awe, just in awe. I don't think there's a human explanation. I really feel God is using us to witness to the world that there's still so many good and generous people who want to make a difference and found their way to Misericordia to make that difference.
Boy, I love Misericordia. Of course I do.
Why is that?
Because I live there. I've been there for 23 years of my life. And it's a good place to go.
I think there is a genuine love of the residents here. I think people feel it. I've has people say to me over and over again that "I come on campus. And I get a different feeling." There's just a spirit about the place.
The mission of Misericordia is to support and share life with children and adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities. What we're trying to do here is make sure that they have the highest quality of life possible, that they're as independent as possible, and that we are very much a part of the Chicago community, the Misericordia community. And we're just trying to make sure that they are working, have work opportunities, have recreational opportunities, therapy opportunities. Anything that they might need we're trying to provide for them. And then, again, just make sure that they have the highest quality of life.
The reason why I come here every day is to enjoy both seeing the residents here do something different and get better, but also just to know that I can interact with them and be a part of their life.
Some of our babies that had Down syndrome still have Down syndrome, but are now experiencing dementia, memory loss, dementia, and Alzheimer's. And could you imagine if we had to send them away? And it's now to the forefront because of medicine, because of the University of Chicago, that we know more about Alzheimer's. We know more about dementia. And we know more about memory loss. And of course, it's going to impact all of us. But the phenomenon with our residents is that people with Down syndrome, and we're just learning this, because they're living longer, are early-onset memory loss, dementia, and Alzheimer's.
Still to this day, most neurologic conditions can't be cured, although some can. Increasingly, more will be. We have to focus on how do we manage conditions that are now actually becoming lifelong conditions rather than those that could cause people to die young.
So we make everything ourselves from start to finish here. So from the wet clay to the stickers, the residents are participating in every part of the process. So it's really exciting for them to make something and then see that it's living in someone's home and being used by people because most of what we make is functional.
And when I'm done with this, this is going to be the next piece [INAUDIBLE] auction [INAUDIBLE].
You can't change what is. But you can certainly make-- you can make their lives as comfortable and as good and as meaningful as possible. I think the experience here has been tremendous. When you watch-- I watched some of these while they were [INAUDIBLE]-- they were children. And now they're adults. And they're still here. And the care they get and the love they get is unbelievable.
Every step of a job a resident is able to help with something, from scooping, weighing, measuring. Even we have a daily UPS pickup. And our UPS guy is flexible and comes at a specific time because it's when it would be convenient for residents to assist with bringing stuff down to the UPS truck.
It's opened my eyes and enriched my life personally on a personal level. And plus, I'm technically the boss. I walk in. And I get cheered. So why wouldn't you want to come here? It's just a happy place. And on top of that, the work that's done here is A-plus.
We are a compassionate place. Typically, compassion has been defined as a relationship between the healer and the wounded. At Misericordia, everyone-- the staff, the volunteers, everyone involved with Misericordia-- know that compassion truly means a relationship between equals.
