My Cana story
Maggy Franklin
An edited version of this story is in the book.
I joined Cana about five and a half years ago. I arrived one Thursday night at De Porres with the idea to “help serve a meal to the needy”. It took about 10 minutes for that illusion to be shattered. I learnt very quickly that Cana was all about sharing and being part of the community not dolling out food. As Fr Brian Stoney said we are all broken somehow inside. At that time there were quite a few residents living in the two terraces of 112 & 114 Flinders St and a guy, Michael, actually lived in during the week to help manage it.
I was afraid he would ask me to volunteer to stay overnight & I wondered how I could avoid this as it wasn’t part of my ‘volunteering plan’. Sure enough he did & I reluctantly agreed. Well, now I am the ‘Thursday overnight person’ and it feels very strange on those rare occasions when I am not there late on Thursday night. I usually clean out the fridge after ‘open house’ dinner, checkout the store room & volunteers’ room for stuff that needs sorting out or moving on. I then have a cuppa and chat or maybe have a game of UNO with David and Albert. It’s only a small group now – five is the maximum number De Porres can have but it’s still one of the main centres of Cana Communities.
De Porres has changed but that’s fine as we need to adjust to the different residents & their needs. Many of us wondered how it would be when Cath Sweeney moved on and though the dynamics change the basic community spirit and welcoming feel is always there. Often there isn’t a group for dinner so volunteers have to adjust to maybe chatting to one guy or go buy subway instead of preparing a big evening meal – but that’s how it is. It can be difficult & fun at the same time.
I remember having a panic when I took a group of residents to Avalon in the bus for an ice-cream & one refused to come back on the bus and went screaming down a lane way with his big packet of medications for the week. Then there was the day Baz & I took a group to Hoyts for a movie – the bus wouldn’t fit in the car park, Cath sat down in the middle of nowhere and refused to move and the ticket seller just looked at our motley crew and said “concessions for all of you”.
Recently I moved house and a couple of the guys from the community helped as my removalists – somehow it all worked. In a way that sums up Cana – somehow it works.