{"id":4569,"date":"2018-06-20T11:56:09","date_gmt":"2018-06-20T15:56:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ezermizion.org\/blog\/?p=4569"},"modified":"2018-06-20T13:06:35","modified_gmt":"2018-06-20T17:06:35","slug":"caring-for-the-caretaker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ezermizion.org\/blog\/caring-for-the-caretaker\/","title":{"rendered":"Caring for the Caretaker"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Lottie<\/a>
Lottie Chalom ob’m<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Many years ago there had been a place called Lottie\u2019s kitchen<\/strong>. It was a small kitchen in a home teeming with chessed. Lottie, a culinary expert, produced trays and trays of goodies which were largely consumed by her many friends. They would gravitate to this island of warmth and compassion to discuss their personal woes with a woman who seemed to have never-ending patience.<\/p>\n

\"pr<\/a>
Volunteering at Lottie’s Kitchen<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Lottie and her husband and partner in chessed, Chaim, have since passed on. Their four daughters deemed it appropriate to found Lottie\u2019s Kitchen<\/strong> in Israel under the auspices of Ezer Mizion. It is there that nutritious, attractive meals are produced, packed and delivered to family members sitting at the bedside of a hospitalized loved one. Women of all ages volunteer<\/strong>\u2013 from teens to the sprightly 85-year-old golden-ager who makes her way to Lottie\u2019s Kitchen with a walker. She had been a chef in her younger years. Her day at Lottie\u2019s Kitchen<\/strong> enables her to make use of her skills and offer advice to the younger set.\u00a0 For the elderly, it is a two-way chessed as it enables them to have structure to their day and meet with similarly minded women as they work.<\/p>\n

\"pr<\/a>
Lottie’s Kitchen volunteers delivering meals to family members at bedside of hospitalized patient<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Israel hospitals do not provide more than basic medical care for its patients.\u00a0 The nursing staff is unable to take the time for the little extras that can make all the difference to a patient\u2019s spirit. A family member therefore, tries to be there for as much as possible of the 24-hour day. Running from work responsibilities to home responsibilities and then making a mad dash to take over a shift at the hospital does not leave the caretaker much time or emotional space to even think of her own needs. A coke and a bag of chips from the hospital<\/strong> vending machine will often be her only fare for weeks. Distraught, tense, worn out, a mother will sit with her six year old, trying to distract him from the constant question of \u201cMommy, when will Hashem make the leukemia go away?\u201d<\/p>\n

\"pr<\/a>
Caring for the Caretaker<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

And then, like an angel, there enters a Lottie\u2019s Kitchen volunteer<\/strong> with a steaming hot, delicious meal. She\u2019ll offer her a chance to talk, to share her story, to ask advice. Mommy can\u2019t believe it. Someone is caring for the caretaker<\/strong>!<\/p>\n

Orders are filled \u2013 some of them very specific. Any meals left over at the end of the day will be given to the dialysis patients who find it so difficult to go back to normal routine just hours after treatment.<\/p>\n

Nechama, the head cook, considers herself just a small cog in the wheel of chessed. But those at Lottie\u2019s Kitchen know that it is she that creates the ambience of giving, of loving. More and more.\u00a0 The Lottie\u2019s Kitchen<\/strong> Family was treated to a trip to pray at the holy places in Israel. Nechama would have loved to join but she realized she would have to cut corners in her cooking. To give \u2018her\u2019 people anything less than perfection was unthinkable. So she opted out, citing a quote from the Chofetz Chaim\u2019s book, Ahavas Chessed, that doing chessed is an especially opportune time to pray. \u201dI won\u2019t lose out at all,\u201d she assured her friends as they boarded the bus.<\/p>\n

Lottie\u2019s Kitchen, one of the many divisions of Ezer Mizion, an empire of chessed.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"pinterest\"<\/a>\"linkedin\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Many years ago there had been a place called Lottie\u2019s kitchen. It was a small kitchen in a home teeming […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,98],"tags":[1078,14,400,1080,25],"class_list":["post-4569","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ezer-mizion","category-food-distribution","tag-caring-for-the-caretaker","tag-hospital","tag-lotties-kitchen","tag-lotties-kitchen-volunteer","tag-volunteer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ezermizion.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4569","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ezermizion.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ezermizion.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ezermizion.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ezermizion.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4569"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ezermizion.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4569\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4573,"href":"https:\/\/ezermizion.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4569\/revisions\/4573"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ezermizion.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4569"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ezermizion.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4569"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ezermizion.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4569"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}