A colorful life is therapy for one patient

Patient uses artistic passion to honor WellMed team that nursed her back to better health

The sun is bright yellow and boasts rays of soft pinks. The flowers, with their mix of bright purples, reds and green, and the blue ocean waves frame the message at the center of this colored page: “The Lord loves righteousness and justice; the earth is full of his unfailing love.”

Mahalia Lynch fills her days with sunshine, flowers and the colors of the rainbow. After her morning prayers, she continues her worship by coloring pages from a book filled with vibrant pictures and Bible passages. Her neighbor gave her the book, plus a big box of colored pencils.

It was the prospect of mental decline that originally prompted Mahalia’s daughter and oldest child, Peaches Morgan, to find a way to improve her mother’s memory. She decided the coloring book – an idea first broached by her neighbor as well – was the perfect solution. Five months and many vibrantly colored pages later, Mahalia is still coloring.

“She has not stopped,” says Peaches of her mother’s love of coloring books. “Every day, she reads her Bible, she prays and then she colors.”

Others are benefitting from this artist’s passion as well, including Nurse Practitioner Christine (Chris) Newcomer, a member of Mahalia’s supportive care team. In Chris’ office in Orlando hangs one of Mahalia’s pictures in a frame.

“Mahalia wanted to give our team a picture to thank us, so we would know what a difference we made in her life,” Chris said. “The picture is beautiful, and it makes me happy to know the impact it had on her mental function as well.”

It was three years ago when Chris, a member of the palliative care program in Orlando, began treating Mahalia at her home. A diabetic, Mahalia also has peripheral neuropathy – a condition that leaves her confined to her bed much of the day. When Chris and her team first started treating Mahalia, that confinement had left her with, among other things, a stage four sacral wound – a severe pressure ulcer that was exposing underlying muscles, tendons and bones along her lower spine. Today, she has little more than minor irritation.

That turnaround has much to do with Chris, who had been visiting Mahalia twice a month.

“She is the epitome of what a nurse should be,” said Peaches, who is a nurse technician and licensed phlebotomist.

“She lights up the house when she walks in,” Mahalia added.

Mahalia used to spend much of the day in her bed, staring at the same four walls – a set-up that was affecting her memory.

The coloring has improved her memory and kept Mahalia occupied in other ways as well.

“Mom lives with pain,” Peaches said. “Coloring takes her mind off of it.”

Mahalia’s bright voice belies any pain she feels – a testament to her faith, despite some challenging times.

Born in St. Andrew, Jamaica, Mahalia moved to Jamaica Queens in 1968. A former touch welder with a company known as Computer Components, she lost her first husband when her four kids were still young. Unwilling to take the risk that another man would not be a good father, she did not remarry for 23 years.

“I raised my kids on my own with the help of God,” she said.

Growing up, all of the kids knew that 6 p.m. was prayer time, Peaches said.

The kids are now grown. The youngest, Kevin, lives in Jamaica. Peaches and brother Kensley, who is the third of Mahalia’s children, live with their mother in Cleremont, Florida. Richard, Mahalia’s second child, passed away from kidney cancer in 2018. But even as the pain of the cancer took hold, Richard would lead the family in prayer on Sunday nights.

They all still come together to pray – although the time is now 9 p.m., said Peaches, adding that Kensley presides over their gathering.

While Mahalia keeps busy coloring, Peaches is busy buying frames for the pages, which Mahalia gave to friends and family as Christmas gifts. The first framed page went to Chris, who still gets emotional about that honor.

“She signed it and put my name on it,” she said.

Adds Peaches about her mother, “Her memory is now better than mine.”