At the Christian Movement of Retired of France, a team was created in a retirement home

Odile (76 years old, herself disabled but living at home) had her mother, aged 102, a resident of a retirement home in the region of Rouen. For the past seven years she has been going there every day; the approach and contact with the site's staff facilitated the creation of an MCR team in the seniors' facility.

This team consists of about ten people (men and women), the oldest being 94 years old;  overall they have all their faculties, even if sometimes one or the other, with declining hearing, does not perceive well the meaning of words not always expressed clearly ...

Every second Tuesday of the month, Odile gathered his team after preparing in advance his plan for the meeting, about part of the year theme. "We sort, we exchange, we fork and at the end of the meeting we always take the text of Holy Scripture; prayer intentions prepared by the participants are read," she told us.

It's a classic meeting plot, but if one of the residents has a problem, the team members think together about this particular point. They talk willingly, it is a real place of exchange and they come to entrust "intimate" things, confidentiality being strictly respected. She quoted us from the case of a 95-year-old gentleman who, on his last visit before his death, had spoken about his whole life in an upsetting way.

The meeting is therefore essentially a place to listen because Odile is very attentive to the comments that come up several times; she immediately takes up the subject, leaving aside the theme of the meeting. For her, the main thing is to have her meeting plan in mind; it will be modulated according to the exchanges, the situations and the state of the people present.

As in a traditional team people pay a fee. The magazine Nouvel Essor is often bought by two; some people can no longer read.

Mass is celebrated in the retirement home every 2 weeks.

Interview by Monika Ptak