When small things help make the unbearable better
SOMETIMES it’s the small things that make a hard life more bearable.
For the helpless and handicapped people living in the White House in the Valley of a Thousand Hills, it was getting an Easter egg.
Not just because of the sweet, chocolate taste, but also the excitement that made the day just a touch different from every yesterday and every tomorrow.
Here, the highlight of the day for some of the people – most of whom have mental handicaps – is their turn to get out of bed and spend a few hours sitting in a wheelchair when one becomes available.
The White House was originally the home of Russell and Precious Chili who took in needy people, leading to it becoming what it is today. However, they were not present on the day The Independent on Saturday visited.
The small home on a steep slope packed with small plots accommodates 70 people – men, women and some children – and runs on donations. Its office receives constant requests to take more desperate people.
“We have calls daily to accommodate new people, from hospitals, social workers and families, but we have to turn them away,” said Adele Walters, a Westville businesswoman who has rolled up her sleeves to help keep the place going.
“In the past they were looked after by their families. Now the dynamic has changed. Parents both work, if they can, and they cannot look after the old and mentally challenged.
“Often they just come here and say ‘we’re leaving them’ and go off without them.”
Standing on the foundations of what will one day be a double-storey extension to the present facility, Walters stressed that even amid the desperation there was hope.
“Windows, doors, pretty much the ceilings, second-hand roof tiles have all been donated by companies and individuals. People who could have said ‘no’ when we approached them.”
Now the White House hopes someone will help with a R30 000 cash donation so they can pay builders to put up the new building.
Then there will be room for the next 50 on the waiting list, said Walters.
At present the wards are jam-packed with hospital beds. The newest of the second-hand beds was a recent donation from Westville Life Hospital.
Medication
“They would fall out of normal beds,” said Walters.
An ordinary day at the White House sees everyone being fed three meals and being taken on medication runs.
The home’s small sedan car travels with a patient, a driver, a carer and a wheelchair, if needed, to one of greater Durban’s hospitals, and back, to collect drugs before doing another run.
Carers are volunteers who receive a stipend, but also gain training and experience to move on to become employed carers elsewhere.
Depression, anxiety and frustration haunt many of the residents, sometimes prompting aggressive behaviour in some, said Walters. One such person stood, shaking, pointing his finger at her as she offered him an Easter egg.
In a nearby bed, a mute man who was so physically disabled he needed to be fed, smiled with delight as she put the chocolate egg into his mouth.
To protect the identity of the patients whose stories Walters shared, The Independent on Saturday has used only first names.
Sicelo, 26, was born physically and mentally challenged and orphaned.
“He was staying with his sister, but she has to work now so there is no one to take care of him during the day,” said Walters.
Another extreme case is 68-year-old Muziwempi, who has dementia and hypertension and once used tin cans to support his hands as he walked about on all fours.
“According to the hospital he came from, he had been estranged from his family for about seven years before arriving at the White House in December 2015,” said Walters.
And then there’s a young man sitting on his haunches, playing with potato skins.
“He spent years in a cage with food being thrown at him, like an animal, until his neighbours heard him crying and called the social workers. He had never walked. Now he can even run,” said Walters.
She said her involvement with this harsh reality began through her church, and had brought new meaning to her life after the death of her husband, who had spent two-and-ahalf years in hospital.
“This place has healed my soul,” she said, moving between beds and wheelchairs, handing out Easter eggs.
Others, like double amputee Arthur, do not have mental handicaps. He cannot satisfy his appetite for reading: “Sometimes I just read the same books again and again.”
Walters be contacted via thewhitehouseinanda@gmail.com or at 083 461 1415.