The talented photographer “J” is back with another touching human story for “I Have A Name”, only this time, the story is a deeply personal one that will move you to shed a tear!
South Africa (24 October 2024) – We have been sharing the inspiring stories and images captured by “J”, the talented photographer behind the Facebook Page, ‘I Have a Name‘ for years. We are always left in awe of how beautifully she captures the essence of her subjects, and then uses the platform to action good in their lives.
This week, “J” shared Maurice’s story and Friends of Good Things Guy shared it with us in the hopes that more people would get to meet Maurice and maybe help change his life. “J” has a significantly close relationship with Maurice, as he helped her family by caring for her father-in-law until his passing.
So here is his story shared by “J’s”, told in the hopes of changing a life!
“My name is Maurice, I am a carer, and was a medic in the army.”
Let me tell you about Maurice. I actually didn’t interview Maurice for this page, but it is rare that an angel like Maurice becomes available, so let me share his story.
I got to know Maurice because he was the carer who looked after my father-in-law in the last pages of the last chapter of his life.
His last chapter of 8 months was spent in our home, surrounded by his family with lots of activity and love and messiness and dogs and cats and birds. We had put off getting a carer because inviting a stranger into your home to care for your nearest and dearest intimately is quite something, and I wasn’t sure how I would feel about that, but we did get to that stage, and enter Maurice…..
From the moment he stepped through the front door, a huge smile on his face, a giant of a man with the gentlest and most caring heart, I knew we had done the right thing.
Maurice had the magic touch and did his job with respect and kindness. Initially, we were worried that my father-in-law might protest and insist he didn’t need help, but that literally lasted for half a day. By the second day, Maurice was the firm favourite, and up to the day before he died, my FIL’s face lit up when he walked in and asked him, ” Where did you go? Why did you leave me?”
“Maurice also has a home and needs to sleep at night”, I’d explain, but he was just happy to be back in safe and capable hands.
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Maurice bathed him, made him his meals, took him outside to sit in the garden, tucked him into bed, helped him go to the bathroom. Maurice personally taught me so much. When I suggested why doesn’t he rather use the wheelchair instead of the walker he told me “We need to let him try to walk by himself if he wants to, and encourage him, until he gets to a point where he can’t anymore.” And he was so excellent at executing that. He would patiently sit for an hour and encourage him to eat by himself, and then take over feeding him when he couldn’t do it anymore. I overheard many conversations they had together, because they had fat chats those two, even when half of it wasn’t rooted in reality anymore. Maurice would steer it back to , you are safe, you are with family, you can trust me, I’m looking after you, you don’t have to worry.
One of the last nights after Maurice had left for the day, I was trying to position him in bed and make him comfortable and he asked me “Where is the strong man?” because Maurice was strong, yet gentle, and knew how to best position and move and adjust frail bodies whilst I just tugged and pulled and propped and obviously didn’t do as good a job as “the strong man.”
Maurice was with us while he passed away. He sat with us by his bedside. He stroked the dogs who were concerned and didn’t understand what was happening and mourned with us. He became like family in the time he was with us and we will miss him.
How you can help: Maurice is looking for a new carer position. He lives in Cosmo City, Johannesburg. You can find Maurice’s contact information here.
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