Saying hello and listening to the life stories of people

A week down.

I am 'working' here as a chaplain in a Caritas-run hospital in Berlin Hermsdorf.

The stories, the faces, the smiles, the people. It is a new experience for me. But it's all the different stories there are to hear that makes it so fascinating.

Standing at the end of a bed and listening to an 80-year old woman recall how she was force marched from East Prussian in 1944 another patient telling me that she has friends who live in Templemore.

An elderly Dominican sister visits patients, playing her mouth organ as she moves from ward to ward. And how the faces of the patients light up when she arrives.

How far a smile and kindness can go.