Elderly Folks

"Geriatrics is a branch of health care that specializes in the particular medical needs of older adults."   Take note - each has a unique personality. 

WOMAN WHO BUILDS FIRE     

Most of the people I write about don't read my writing, and Barbara is one of them.  Next week she's celebrating her eighty-somethingish  birthday: 
    After coffee hour at church, she scooped up her covered cake pan from the kitchen, and said,  "I baked seventy-five dozen cOOkies for social hour last year,  so now do you think the Lord will let me into heaven?"

Barbara roasts marshmallows outdoors during  the  summer  over a big bonfire in her back yard. 
She meanders through the hOOd on foot through the woods.  She calls it the Hood because she's lived there since she was a girl.

Geriatrics yes.  Both knees were  replaced at the same time.  She can no longer kneel for communion.

But Barbara is young even if the numbers don't say so, and she lives the best she can with the hitches, and 
Prays to the Lord while she argues her point with Him. 
   
She tells it like it is.  Sings.  Cares.  Listens.    
Serves tea and coffee to family, friends, and neighbors, and warms up a  lively conversation around a small wood cook stove in her kitchen. (In winter,  woman who builds fire, builds fire to help save on the heating bills.) 

 
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Sugar Bear

JENNIE: 
  "You paint!"  The home health helper exclaimed as she  touched a small acrylic painting on a corner table near Jenny's chair.  "Did you paint this picture?" the helper asked.  It was of a sad eyed bear, with brown black eyes and a look on its face much like Jennie's. In the picture, there were also two happy snowmen.  One on each side of the sad bear.
  "I painted it,"  she admitted. "The bear is me, and the snowmen are my friends, and I'm afraid... they will melt." 

  "Someone saved my life today,  Sugar Bear...". Jennie hummed and softly sang. She had a best friend she said,  and he died, and it  was this song that we sang together- our song by Elton John. 
The helper played it for her on her Iphone speaker.   


 Alas for those who never sing but die with all their music in them. 
Song of Solomon 2:12 
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Misfit

  Annie was stuck in a pod facade.  It looked nice from the outside,  but most of its inhabitants were dementia patients. Annie  was wheel chair bound, but she had a good sharp mind.   
  She had no one to play games with her - not Scrabble, not  Rummikub,  not Aggravation.  
  Would she tell her family she was misplaced?  That she  liked her previous skilled facility better, where the residents held game days and  tournaments, and that they were able to relate.  
(And hey, reaching for game pieces and putting them  in place for 45 minutes,  is very good range of motion exercise for strengthening shoulders.)

Handmade scoreboard for the card game Fast Track
 (originally called Aggravation)

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