Ten years ago, we met a woman we will call Mrs. S.
At that time she was bedridden at home. Her family hoped only that day care would keep her clean and bathed, and on that understanding she began coming to Hidamari — the home that is Kuromamesan today.
We helped her bathe. We helped her use the toilet. We prepared her meals and drove her to and from her house. We were doing everything that “care” is supposed to mean. And then she said this.
If I have to be this much trouble to everyone, I would rather be dead.
It stopped us cold. Care that only looks after someone, we realised, would never bring a smile to her face.
So we started having real conversations with her. What had her life been like? What did she love? What was she good at? Was there anyone she wished she could see again? And then —
Teach us how to pickle vegetables! Teach us how to plant azuki beans! We want to cook rice on the old kamado stove and we have no idea how — please, help us!
Before we knew it, she was up and walking with a frame, smiling, and looking after us.
It was never that she could not walk. It was that she had nothing worth walking towards. What had to be awakened was not her body, but her spirit.
So Kuromamesan stopped doing care that only looks after people, care that fills the day with rehabilitation drills and organised activities. Instead we ask the elderly to teach us the old country way of living, and we take it back together — because doing that makes everyone here, residents and staff alike, healthier and readier to laugh.
The care we practise today, woven together with the country living this age is hungry for, has become a seed for the town itself.
Care × Country Living — we want to grow this seed into something large. It is a challenge that only Kuromamesan and you, sharing the same conviction, can take on. We hope you will watch what comes next.