In caring for others, we find our true strength and purpose.– Anonymous
THE Josefheim Elderly Care Community, this year’s beneficiary of “Coloring Lives,” a fund-raising activity conducted by Sunshine Place, is a non-profit organization located in Pililla, Rizal. According to Fr. Uldarico Dioquino, Josefheim a German word meaning House of Joseph is a home for abandoned and forgotten elderly. As of July 25, 2025, the community has 18 residents, 12 females and 6 males. According to Fr. Dari, there were initially 27 residents; six have passed on and three were reunited with their families. The residents were referred by the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD); some came from hospitals, some are street people or “taong grasa,” one was just left at the gate of the facility with no identification at all. The foundation relies on sponsors and of course on the many Catholic institutions.
Sunshine Place is among the many foundations that contribute to maintain Josefheim. Members of Sunshine Place believe that the care we give to our elders is a measure of our character and a reflection of our love. Through the art pieces exhibited and auctioned during Coloring Lives, Sunshine Place members were given the golden opportunity to help the residents of Josefheim who have been deprived of familial care and feeling.
Many senior Sunshine Place members (now even non-seniors, including children) have discovered hidden talents that had lain dormant while they raised families or earned a living.
One of the Coloring Lives exhibitors, a younger adult member, used to accompany her 80-year-old mother-in-law who had taken up painting as a form of therapy. When the mother-in-law passed on, she decided to enroll in the class, having become familiar with the teaching methods of the instructor, Fidel Sarmiento. After years of training, Loida has joined art competitions, sometimes landing as a finalist.
Many of the creative writing students have successfully published two books of memoirs: Reflections of Light and Shadows and Bridges of Memory. During the event, a guest who was an official of a book distribution company, announced that the local library of a Visayan province had ordered 750 copies of Bridges of Memory. The exhibit became a double celebration for many of the memoir-writing members, most of them retirees who never in their wildest dreams ever thought they could write.
Sunshine had offered creative writing classes during the pandemic via zoom. There were eight initial enrollees(2 passed on after they had finalized their stories) and for years they were on zoom, four to five hours a day, learning the elements of writing from their San Francisco-based professor. My pieces were edited a hundred times as the whole class and our professor critiqued my work. I almost gave up but I persevered thinking that I would reap whatever I work for soon, and I did!
In flower arranging, one goes by the book. The class of 6 to 9 students would prepare their pieces that would then would be “critiqued” by the teacher, Marc, after which the arrangement would be placed in a table for a photo shoot. This happens every Saturday for a month, then after a break, they return for another four weeks of lessons.
In painting, the artist usually has a draft/photo drawn on a piece of paper which is then mounted on a piece of canvas for the students to start mixing colors and then start to paint.
It is much the same with porcelain painting, which usually involves selecting a painting and tracing the piece on carbon paper on the vase/plate/tray; you then start using special paint. When done, the piece is placed in the kiln overnight. Then you darken the colors and the piece then goes through another overnight kiln heating.
A brilliant new craft, decoupage, was introduced at Sunshine Place by instructor Tess Colayco. I will explain this colorful crafting in another column.
I was one of the happy exhibitors at Coloring Lives. My ikebana piece, “You’re My Everything” sold that afternoon. I happily donated all the proceeds to Josefheim. I had to rush to replace my piece so my place in the exhibit would not be left vacant. It was quite an experience as the rains made it difficult to get to Dangwa to buy flowers.
I have participated in previous fund-raising events of Sunshine Place, along with friends and classmates in the various workshops being offered at the center but this year’s Coloring Lives was the most heartwarming because the beneficiaries were the abandoned elderly.
The Coloring Lives fund-raising exhibit is not a once-in-a-blue moon event. Previous Coloring Lives have benefited the Kanlungan ni Maria Home for the Aged located in Antipolo City, San Lorenzo Ruiz Center for the Elderly in Pasay and the senior residents at Pavilions 8 and 28 in the National Center for Mental Health in Mandaluyong City.
Sunshine Place and its students ensure that the elderly who are feeling blue are tickled pink with the colors of love. In our Spiral of Life, don’t you get the feeling of fulfillment when we do something good for others?
Martin Luther King Jr. said, “Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, ‘What are you doing for others’?”
