An email from a colleague reminded me of one of my mother’s stories. My colleague had given me some hummingbird images in the form of aboriginal art. I asked her what the significance was, if any. She said that hummingbirds in North American aboriginal culture mean "healers". She went on to say that
not only do we need more concerted research on “alzheimer’s”… but hopefully we will have more choices in housing and lifestyles for aging parents. So, you fit the description of a “healer” who facilitates better health.
First, thank you to my colleague for thinking of me as a “healer”. I don’t consider myself a healer, but rather a bridge. I will pick up on her comments on housing and lifestyles for the elderly on another occasion; it is her reference to “healers” that I write to now.
My mother often told us children a story her mother had told her as a child in the Ukraine. My maternal grandmother came from a poor peasant family who could not afford to send their daughter to school. However, the priest at the local church recognised my grandmother’s abilities and offered her a scholarship so she could study. As there was no school in her village, my grandmother would stay at a boarding school in another village. During the summer, she would stay with her grandmother in yet another village.
My great great-grandmother was a healer of some renown. My grandmother would spend her summers wandering with her grandmother through the meadows and forests, searching for medicinal leaves, flowers, bark, roots, etc. Apparently, my great great-grandmother had found a remedy for syphilis using medicinal herbs. The Czar’s court heard of my great great-grandmother’s ability to cure syphilis, and an entourage of the Czar’s personal physicians came to visit her in her village to learn the truth. The doctors brought with them people that had been diagnosed with syphilis, and asked my great great-grandmother to cure them. To their surprise, she did.
They begged my great great-grandmother to return with them to the Czar’s court in Moscow, but she refused. They pleaded for the recipe, telling her that the Czar would make her a wealthy woman. As she was illiterate, they would write it down for her; but she shunned them, saying that she would “pass it down” when the time was right. I have always believed that she planned to pass her knowledge on to her granddaughter, my grandmother, but before she could do so, she had what we believe to be a stroke, and her knowledge was lost.
Is this story true? I would like to believe so. My mother loved telling us this story, which spanned several generations. She had a passion for history, and I suppose this story gave her a sense of her roots, which she passed on to us.
As for my grandmother, she became a teacher of the Ukrainian language, and the principal of a local village elementary school.
not only do we need more concerted research on “alzheimer’s”… but hopefully we will have more choices in housing and lifestyles for aging parents. So, you fit the description of a “healer” who facilitates better health.
First, thank you to my colleague for thinking of me as a “healer”. I don’t consider myself a healer, but rather a bridge. I will pick up on her comments on housing and lifestyles for the elderly on another occasion; it is her reference to “healers” that I write to now.
My mother often told us children a story her mother had told her as a child in the Ukraine. My maternal grandmother came from a poor peasant family who could not afford to send their daughter to school. However, the priest at the local church recognised my grandmother’s abilities and offered her a scholarship so she could study. As there was no school in her village, my grandmother would stay at a boarding school in another village. During the summer, she would stay with her grandmother in yet another village.
My great great-grandmother was a healer of some renown. My grandmother would spend her summers wandering with her grandmother through the meadows and forests, searching for medicinal leaves, flowers, bark, roots, etc. Apparently, my great great-grandmother had found a remedy for syphilis using medicinal herbs. The Czar’s court heard of my great great-grandmother’s ability to cure syphilis, and an entourage of the Czar’s personal physicians came to visit her in her village to learn the truth. The doctors brought with them people that had been diagnosed with syphilis, and asked my great great-grandmother to cure them. To their surprise, she did.
They begged my great great-grandmother to return with them to the Czar’s court in Moscow, but she refused. They pleaded for the recipe, telling her that the Czar would make her a wealthy woman. As she was illiterate, they would write it down for her; but she shunned them, saying that she would “pass it down” when the time was right. I have always believed that she planned to pass her knowledge on to her granddaughter, my grandmother, but before she could do so, she had what we believe to be a stroke, and her knowledge was lost.
Is this story true? I would like to believe so. My mother loved telling us this story, which spanned several generations. She had a passion for history, and I suppose this story gave her a sense of her roots, which she passed on to us.
As for my grandmother, she became a teacher of the Ukrainian language, and the principal of a local village elementary school.