The Stormy Village
The Stormy Village is a poem inspired by Gilchrist Chaplain, in response to the pandemic.
The Stormy Village is a poem that wrote itself. It is the story of Gilchrist, its employees and teams, and the people we serve. I was touched by my colleagues who wanted to find ways to support patients and each other early in the pandemic. Before vaccines and even before testing, our teams put patients’ needs above their own.
When the pandemic started, I was serving as a chaplain and grief counselor, providing support for patients in residential care centers. Everyone on our team was scared, but the common thread was finding a way to support patients while keeping ourselves and our families safe.
We dealt with worry, sickness and fear, and many of us lost patients and colleagues who worked for partner organizations and residential care centers. Some of us lost friends and family as well. We could not draw from the comfort of being in each other’s presence, so we had to find ways to give and get support as we went on with our life.
It was with this backdrop that I saw true hearts of gold in my team members.
The Stormy Village was a way to take some of these experiences and speak a broader truth through poetry. Starting with the context of a parent reading to a child is symbolic of the many parents who had to find a way to occupy their children when schools, playgrounds and child care centers were closed.
The poem was a thank you to the Gilchrist family and a way to recognize the way we came together to help each other, our patients and others in the community.
Listen to Wayman Scott recite his original poem, The Stormy Village, in this animated video.
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