By Ononye VC
At the Basilica of the Most Holy Trinity Onitsha,special prayers and blessings were last sunday showered on the elderly during a Mass by the Vicar of the Basilica,Rev Fr John Ezeanowai.
He admonished children and relatives of the elderly to try every possible means to seek the welfare of elderly ones in their homes and neighborhood.
According to him,many elderly people were abandoned by their children and relatives which expose them to all kinds of vulnerability.
He called on town unions and church associations to look out for such helpless elderly people with a view to making them comfortable by providing food and drugs for them,
Fr Ezeanowai reflected on the need for functional old people’s home and also called on state and local governments to make special budgets for Cheshire homes and motherless babies homes to assist in making their burdens lighter.
In a surprising turn,one of the elderly men, Mr George Modika,a veteran of the Nigerian and Biafran army asked the priest for the microphone to deliver a vote of thanks after the special prayers and blessings.
Mr Modika who turned 75 years but physically strong like a 40 year old man,thanked the priest for his prayers and for remembering the elderly.He announced a donation of N25,000 to the parish,splitting it into three as follows; N10,000 to the choir,N10,000 to the officiating priest and N5,000 to Altar Servers.
As the entire congregants erupted in a loud ovation,Rev fr Ezeanowai expressed gratitude to Mr Modika describing his donation as coming from his heart and very big in the eyes of God being a retired elderly parishioner who had no other source of livelihood.