In December 2010, preparing for the Holidays was considered an important event in the Rehab Centre. This was partly because the residents were not allowed to go home, since the chances of relapse were higher in this period: in most families they celebrate with alcohol and problems can occur caused by the disordered relationships. Loneliness and solitude are also risk factors.

For that very reason the residents usually look forward to the Holidays with lethargy, without expectation, or with negative tension. In spite of, or together with, these feelings, we started to learn Christmas songs and every day we thought about the meaning of Advent and the Holidays. Janos Boros and his wife spent Christmas in the Rehab. I was very interested to hear what he would report about the celebration afterwards and I found with joy that the residents were singing Christmas songs in the village until late at night. They visited and greeted some friends and the villagers they knew. The shoebox gifts also brought happiness and smiles to their faces (the shoeboxes were generously provided by the Blythswood Care organization from Scotland). There were some men who had not received any present for Christmas for years.

As it has become a custom, some of the old residents came to the Rehab with their families, or with friends, or alone, to the New Year’s Eve gathering. For me, as a staff member, it was important and beautiful to see that this group became a community. It became valuable to them that they could celebrate differently than before, that they could be happy, make jokes and spend quality time together with sober heads, where the company was important and it was worthwhile to make sacrifices and to travel for it.

Éva Bartha, Psychologist, Therapy Centre