Old People

Mr. Herring is one of the 'old people' I take care of.

I love my 'old people' and I hope they don't mind

that I call them that, 'cause it makes

me smile.

He getting up there, turns 90 this year.

I first met him 10 years ago, he has

a prankster, ornery attitude

that makes people

feel like they just

want to pull up a chair to sit a spell.  

He has Alzheimer's

now, so the stories 

are always the

same...but as

my grandpa often said,

 "you've probably heard this before, 

but it bears repeating!"

(He told the same stories a lot too)

I had the privilege of taking

him to the symphony in

the park on the 4th of July.

He rarely goes out

any more, but he was so

excited to go.

We ended up staying for 3 1/2 hours

I couldn't believe it...he was

having so much fun listening

to the music, and of

course, we had to stay

for the 1812 Overture,

because there were real

canons going to go off!

 He even met the canoneer after!

It makes me miss my daddy, no where

near 90, but I think that's why

I like taking care of old people,

my daddy's gone now and

my mama lives in Oregon, so

I take care of people in

honor of them.

Mrs. Herring is a cutie patootie.

Her birthday was a few weeks

ago and I took her a crown for her party!

Isn't she so cute!

She use to be my kid's piano teacher

and though we rarely hear

her play now, on

her birthday she

gave it a go.

We gathered around

to sing.

Her gnarled hands hitting plenty

of wrong notes, but no one

cared...because Mrs. Herring played.

I've taken to praying with her

when we do things that

are hard...and

singing to her too.

The first time I sang, I felt a little

silly, but I knew it was the

right thing to do...

and after we did the 'hard thing,'

Mrs. Herring

smiled.

Oh and here's a funny story...

Mrs. Herring likes

to kiss goodbye on

the lips...I 

usually just shake Mr. Herring's hand

but one day I went in for a hug...

and he gave me

a raspberry!

And there's Jerry...she's

discouraged.

A lot.

Sometimes when I visit her

she's very sad but

by the time I'm ready

to go I see her

smile.

But not lately.

I've told her I miss it.

I prayed out loud for God

to help her find her smile

 (I've never really liked praying out loud, so I am

 reminded when

I do that it's what my parents would always

do when they left someone's house after

visiting and that makes me feel happy... to be like them.)

Will you pray for her with me?

One day, before the

sadness became huge,

I took her out to

the Goodwill.  Oh my goodness,

it was like taking a kid to the

candy shop....I even had to

give her a 10 minute warning

to leave or we'd have been

there all day!

When she goes out,

she says she feels like she's escaping...

she lives in a retirement home.

Do you see them?

Old people?

Sometimes when I visit

my mom in Oregon, seeing

the folks in her retirement

home reminds me

that I need to really look at them

in their eyes, because

really seeing people matters...

No matter how old they are.

Many of them are 

forgotten

and they don't look at people

in the eyes.

And that's

just too sad.

Find an old person soon would you?

Look them in the eye and

listen, even if you've heard

their story 

before,

maybe even

hold their hand

and pray for them.

Look for smiles

'cause sometimes

those get lost.

Blessings,

Deedee