We are still dealing with all the minutia that is produced when someone is lost... On a daily basis we are surrounded and absorbed in a world that not only saddens but also gladdens your heart... People will be people and in my experience recently there are far more good than there are bad.
My life has changed beyond all recognition over the last 12 weeks in ways that I could not have foreseen, even with a crystal ball, if I had one........ I spend as much time as I can in my shop, which I have to admit has been reduced by an enormous proportion, my animals are my saving grace, with Dudley, Sammy, Peewee and Daisy and all the others reading my mind sometimes and showing their affection in bucket loads just when I need it most.... because my time has been diverted in another direction, one that until recently I didn't acknowledge even existed.
Perhaps because I didn't want to look or because until you are thrown head long into it, the world of the elderly is something we know is coming, but is a place where we avoid a glance in fear that it might come quicker than we'd like, or that perhaps it is someone else's responsibility. It is a world that we may assume is filled with difficulty, smells which we'd prefer not to discuss for fear they'd turn our stomachs and fluids that end up in the wrong places! It is a treacherous place filled with repetition, so much time, and instability in ways you can't imagine. But I have learned, if you look hard enough, and take the time to listen and absorb, its also one filled with hundreds of tiny events and achievements, huge hearts, and selfless people who's endless patients and kindness is rewarded on a daily basis.
For the last 6 weeks I have spent a large part of every day at Sycamore Hall in Bainbridge, a purpose build home for the elderly, split into 43 individual flats. The reason I'm spending so much time there is Nigel's mum... I felt I could not leave her feeling abandoned, on her own, in new surroundings, without some support... I thought I'd be able to help in some way, to lend a hand, and to be a shoulder to lean on.... but it's been completely the opposite....... she is an inspiration.... and what I thought might be a chore has been so rewarding, nothing is what I assumed... nothing is what is seems, its a revelation!
Together with all the other people who live in the home, and there are so many, it is not my world, but their's... and they have been kind enough to let me into it, to accept me as someone who can be trusted, and I don't feel helpful.....I feel humbled by it..... its a cliche to say that the staff are wonderful, but until you really look at what they do, on a daily basis, they really do need a medal, each and every one.......
............. I'll tell you more about it when I have a moment.....
My life has changed beyond all recognition over the last 12 weeks in ways that I could not have foreseen, even with a crystal ball, if I had one........ I spend as much time as I can in my shop, which I have to admit has been reduced by an enormous proportion, my animals are my saving grace, with Dudley, Sammy, Peewee and Daisy and all the others reading my mind sometimes and showing their affection in bucket loads just when I need it most.... because my time has been diverted in another direction, one that until recently I didn't acknowledge even existed.
Perhaps because I didn't want to look or because until you are thrown head long into it, the world of the elderly is something we know is coming, but is a place where we avoid a glance in fear that it might come quicker than we'd like, or that perhaps it is someone else's responsibility. It is a world that we may assume is filled with difficulty, smells which we'd prefer not to discuss for fear they'd turn our stomachs and fluids that end up in the wrong places! It is a treacherous place filled with repetition, so much time, and instability in ways you can't imagine. But I have learned, if you look hard enough, and take the time to listen and absorb, its also one filled with hundreds of tiny events and achievements, huge hearts, and selfless people who's endless patients and kindness is rewarded on a daily basis.
For the last 6 weeks I have spent a large part of every day at Sycamore Hall in Bainbridge, a purpose build home for the elderly, split into 43 individual flats. The reason I'm spending so much time there is Nigel's mum... I felt I could not leave her feeling abandoned, on her own, in new surroundings, without some support... I thought I'd be able to help in some way, to lend a hand, and to be a shoulder to lean on.... but it's been completely the opposite....... she is an inspiration.... and what I thought might be a chore has been so rewarding, nothing is what I assumed... nothing is what is seems, its a revelation!
Together with all the other people who live in the home, and there are so many, it is not my world, but their's... and they have been kind enough to let me into it, to accept me as someone who can be trusted, and I don't feel helpful.....I feel humbled by it..... its a cliche to say that the staff are wonderful, but until you really look at what they do, on a daily basis, they really do need a medal, each and every one.......
............. I'll tell you more about it when I have a moment.....
RSS Feed
