A few days ago, we sat in an airport with two great friends of ours, about to say goodbye to one of them who was on her way back to her family in Canada.
They are both from El Salvador and spent a year and a half volunteering here, just over twenty years ago. They worked with Corrymeela, a community engaged in matters of peace and reconciliation and, during their time in Northern Ireland, we provided a family home for them to escape to when they needed a break.
Lucia, and her big sister Alice, were the star attractions of our family. No Salvadoran missed out on their hugs, and the fun and chaos with growing children added some normality, even respite, to a world dealing with matters of conflict and social tension.
When the hurricane of Lucia’s autoimmune condition suddenly and unexpectedly disrupted all our lives, our Salvadoran friends stayed firmly with us, and remain so today, with genuine solidarity and support.
Our chat in the airport came at the end of a week of catching up with friends, and finding ourselves in new networks with others, from Spain and Chile. A brief period for a coffee before one of them went through the departure gates for her transatlantic flight.
Our conversation was a mixture of memories, old and new, and hopes of making more memories together in the future. It was threaded with laughter, with other emotions never far away.
Somewhere in there, we spoke of a good friend who had died the day before. The conversation turned to thoughts of cultural differences around funerals, burial and cremation. We moved easily into our own ideas and preferences, and the matter of organ donation.
One of our friends had been present at last week’s launch of new materials for schools about organ donation (Saturday’s blog to come) and spoke of how the challenges and benefits of organ donation were so readily taken up by children and young people. Their natural thoughts about how to help, to support, and to encourage and inspire others, if given space, often seem to spread easily through friends and peers, and back to the family home.
Someone asked if this was an appropriate conversation topic for our moment, with one friend about to leave and another navigating her own experiences with serious health conditions. The ready response was yes. It was a natural and easy discussion for us all. Exactly as Live Loudly Donate Proudly attempts to promote. Ordinary conversations that can sometimes lead to extraordinary gifts.
A coffee conversation. How many more of these can be opened this week…?
