Making Someone Smile

I spent last weekend sewing buttons and buttons on a patchwork throw for a lady in the nursing home part of the hospital/personal care/nursing home where I work mainly overnights. Usually I walk with 3 of our resident ladies in personal care to the upstairs activity room to play Bingo. There is a younger lady who always tries to make conversation with me. It is so apparent that she is lonely. I did a little investigating and found that she had been a special education teacher, had no children of her own, and suffered some type of stroke a few years back leaving her in a wheel chair with some memory problems.

Also, birthdays are celebrated once a month at the facility for residents. Her birthday was last Wednesday. So this gave me the idea to spread a little joy and finish a project. My 14 year old son, Wynston and I strolled into her room on Friday and she was so pleasantly surprised. She kept asking my son, "Did she make this for real?" I saw her yesterday at Bingo and she was all smiles telling me that she slept with the quilt on her the night before. I told her I hoped she had pleasant dreams. Her reply, "Only the best kind." Don't know who is smiling more -- her or me.

Going to the Birds

A dear friend of mine asked me yesterday to send her some pictures of what I have been working on lately. One might could say that my life is "going to the birds" here recently. I have been stitching a new set of blocks that have birds in each one of them. I also think they look like Kaliescope pictures or even Mandala type art.




Now just have to figure out how I want to place them in a quilt and what fabrics to use. Lately, I have been using very vibrant colors because I have so wanted Spring to get here. Thanks goodness it has finally arrived, but we did have quite a bit of snow fall just the other day.




I am so happy the snow melts quickly once the winds start to blow and the sun comes out again. Does make for interesting driving down our mud pit though.



Also, people have been delivering vases of dafodils to the residents of the nursing home and personal care where I work. I love seeing this bright yellow around and the flowers make wonderful conversation pieces to get everyone talking to each other.

Enjoy your Spring and I hope it doesn't fly by too quickly!!

Root Beer Float Therapy

I work in a personal care unit of a small town hospital/nursing home facility in Montana. Days can be long, meals provided can be bland, and visitors can be few for the residents living 24/7 where I work anywhere from 8 hour shifts to 12 hour shifts 5 days a week.

Some times spirits start to sink for these folks. Signs are changes in tones/attitude, less attendance in daily activities provided and finally in eating habits. We offer snacks between meals 3 times a day and for the most part none are accepted. The residents do usually keep something in their cupboards in their rooms but with regular checks (to keep water cups filled) and verbal reminders (asking if they would like a snack), still sometimes extra calories or even enough caloric intake is not done. One thing we (the staff of 4) have noticed is by combining little cups of vanilla ice cream and a partial can of root beer in a coffee cup and including a spoon and straw, there are smiles on faces all around. Only recently one resident said to me, "How did you know that a root beer float was always my favorite drink?"

Just this week, I have been experiencing a sort of loss because one of the residents moved out to be taken care of by her daughter at her home. The resident's physical limitations were deteriorating so that she would have to be moved into the nursing home part of our facility. When I made root beer floats for the other residents today, I had to mentally dedicate it to this now "former" resident. I cherished our many conversations and learned several new things in my 6 months of interactions.

Also as a treat to my family, I stopped at the local market and brought home some vanilla ice cream and root beer to have floats for desserts. All smiles in my house tonight!

Hoping you treat yourself to this simple fun tasting joy some time soon.

Where did February Go?

Happy Leap Day!

I am in shock that February 2012 has flown by. My son also pointed out to me the other night that I am now NOT a blogger. I asked him why he said this and he replied, "Because I never see you typing furiously on the computer and telling me to be quiet while you think." He is 14 and full of wonderful insights.

I have been putting in 45 hour weeks in Personal Care. The 3 ladies in the wing are such precious characters. It is a delight to get them talking about their lives and "the way things were" in the past.

Just the other night I was talking to one of the ladies about a quilt I am working on that a person in Georgia has requested. It has been something for me to wrap my mind around -- a quilt for their casket. The person is in her 60's and has always wanted a tulip quilt and wants one for her casket. She says she is in good health but one never knows.



I am still working on adding the leaves as shown in the picture.

This lady in personal care told me that is not a strange request. She said that Blackfeet Indians used to place a star quilt on their caskets. She said it was a tradition. I had never heard of that before.

I know my foster mother used to tell me that she did not want flowers at her funeral, she wanted them while she was alive. So being the dutiful daughter wanting to please, I planted 100's of tulip bulbs along the walkway sidewalk out in the front yard. I got as much joy from them as she did.

Just talking of flowers has got me wanting Spring to hurry and come. I love the blooming and greenery.

So as to prove my son wrong, I am going to strive to take time to put my thoughts, sights, and experiences to the keys in March.

Crabby Old Man

Keith A. Wells Sr.'s Photos
CRABBY OLD MAN

When an old man died in the geriatric ward of a nursing home in North Platte , Nebraska , it was believed that he had nothing left of any value

Later, when the nurses were going through his meager possessions, They found this poem . Its quality and content so impressed the staff that copies were made and distributed to every nurse in the hospital

One nurse took her copy to Missouri . The old man's sole bequest to posterity has since appeared in the Christmas edition of the News Magazine of the St. Louis Association for Mental Health.. A slide presentation has also been made based on his simple, but eloquent, poem.

And this little old man, with nothing left to give to the world, is now the author of this 'anonymous' poem winging across the Internet.


Crabby Old Man

What do you see nurses? . . What do you see?
What are you thinking . . . . . when you're looking at me?
A crabby old man, . ... .. not very wise,
Uncertain of habit .. . .. . . . . . with faraway eyes?

Who dribbles his food . . .. . . . . and makes no reply .
When you say in a loud voice .. . . . .. 'I do wish you'd try!'
Who seems not to notice . ... . the things that you do .
And forever is losing . . . . .. . . . . . A sock or shoe?

Who, resisting or not . . . . . . .. . . lets you do as you will,
With bathing and feeding The long day to fill?
Is that what you're thinking? Is that what you see?
Then open your eyes, nurse . . . . . you're not looking at me .

I'll tell you who I am . As I sit here so still,
As I do at your bidding, . . . . . . as I eat at your will.
I'm a small child of Ten ... . . . . . with a father and mother,
Brothers and sisters . . . ... . . . . . who love one another.

A young boy of Sixteen . . with wings on his feet
Dreaming that soon now . . . .. .. . . a lover he'll meet..
A groom soon at Twenty . my heart gives a leap.
Remembering, the vows . . . . .. . that I promised to keep.

At Twenty-Five, now . . . . . . . . I have young of my own.
Who need me to guide . . . . And a secure happy home.
A man of Thirty . . . . .. . . . .. My young now grown fast,
Bound to each other . . . . . . . With ties that should last.

At Forty, my young sons .. . have grown and are gone,
But my woman's beside me . . . . . . . to see I don't mourn.
At Fifty, once more, babies play 'round my knee,
Again, we know children . . . . . . . My loved one and me.

Dark days are upon me . . my wife is now dead.
I look at the future ... . .. . . . . . . shudder with dread..
For my young are all rearing . . . . . .. young of their own.
And I think of the years . . .. and the love that I've known.

I'm now an old man . . . . . .. .. . . and nature is cruel.
Tis jest to make old age . . . . look like a fool.
The body, it crumbles .. . . . . . . grace and vigor, depart..
There is now a stone . . . .. . . . where I once had a heart.

But inside this old carcass . . a young guy still dwells,
And now and again . . . .. . . . my battered heart swells.
I remember the joys . . . . . . . . .. I remember the pain.
And I'm loving and living . . . . . .. . . . . life over again.

I think of the years, all too few . . . . . gone too fast.
And accept the stark fact . . . . . .. that nothing can last.
So open your eyes, people . . . . . . . . open and see.
Not a crabby old man. Look closer . . . see ME!!

Remember this poem when you next meet an older person who you might brush aside without looking at the young soul within . . . . we will all, one day, be there, too!

PLEASE SHARE THIS POEM
The best and most beautiful things of this world can't be seen or touched. They must be felt by the heart.

Compliments

On Christmas Eve my daughter and I visited the Personal Care wing where I work and delivered some finger cakes dipped in chocolates and made some fruit punch with sherbet for their snack. There are three lady residents on the floor right now and all are in their upper 80's.

Excitement was in the air over me doing this little treat for them. The staff and I had decorated everywhere on the floor for the holidays including their dining room so everything was pleasant and spirits were up.

As we sat visiting at the dining table it was fun to ask questions and hear their history of how they ended up in the town of Fort Benton. All three had been married; two to farmers (one in cattle, one in wheat) and the other had owned a store and post office in a distant town saying, "As the kids moved in closer so did we".

One who had lost her husband last year around Christmas smiled when telling how she had traveled to Fort Benton to help a brother's wife who was having her third child to care for her small young ones years ago. She had been set up on a blind date -- and gone to the big town of Great Falls on their first date on April 1st. I loved seeing the smile on her face when telling this almost like she was that young girl again on her adventure with love.

Many thanks were given by them for this special snack. One even told me yesterday morning as I was helping her get dressed that my activity was the "best" out of everything she did for the holidays this year.

I know it isn't the big things in life that please people the most, but having shared this short time with them brings a smile to my face as well as my daughter who left saying, "They remind me of grandma. I know she is not with me anymore, but I still feel her around me."

Sunsets Of My Life

"I now begin the journey that will lead me into the sunset of my life. I know that for America there will always be a bright dawn ahead. Thank you, my friends. May God always bless you." November 5, 1994: From the letter in which Reagan announced his Alzheimer's diagnosis — five years after leaving office.

My heart has been very heavy for the past few days now after receiving a phone call from a relative of a person in my past. I was told that her sister has been given 1 year to live, but now I have received another phone message from a call I missed last night that reports a sudden turn for the worse with the doctor's wanting to "pull the plug" on her kidney and that the end will come within the next few days.



This saddens me as she is just 44 years old and the mother of three children -- two of which are grown but one that is still a teenager and has been "floating" for a year now during this period of her mother's illness (surgery and then chemo).

It has set my mind to remembering this special sweet lady. I will always remember her smile and the happiness in her voice no matter what she was going through. It has my heart crying knowing that she has been struggling for so long trying to hold on and that her battle is being lost.



That was the worst part of the care I gave to my in-laws for 6 years knowing I was losing a battle, one that I saw as not winning. Then I was finally able to come to terms towards the end in understanding that they were so tired and their body was giving out even if their spirit was strong to the end. I always tried to keep them comfortable and happy or pleasant in talking to them, getting them to reminisce about things they enjoyed. I find I do that even now in working on the personal care floor at the hospital.



So it is with these thoughts that I tie together recent pictures of sunsets here in Fort Benton, MT. They are true masterpieces and my youngest (Avery) and I could not help but keep saying "wow" while shooting these. I am thankful and hope to have many more sunsets to enjoy with my family. I am still saying a prayer for my friend. Her name is Sherri (she lives in Georgia) -- say a little one for her too if you don't mind.