Monday morning. Its usually fairly quiet, with not a whole lot of chatter going on in our program. Our members have been at home all weekend and they’re usually a little disoriented being back at the day center. Well, in walks Mrs. Hair Lady…
One of our sweeter ladies, Mrs. Hair Lady is very sociable although her hearing is not the best. And by not the best, I mean that one time I popped a balloon by accident when we were taking down some decorations and she told me that was the first thing she heard all day.
Well, Mrs. Hair Lady begun this habit of bringing photos in from her family album so she could better share with everyone about her life. The first couple times she brought in pictures of her daughters’ pets and then she shared pictures of her grandchildren. A few weeks after that she brought in some photos of herself in her 30’s and 40’s (she was quite a head-turner!) where she looked as young as her teenage daughter.
She turned 93!
Today we celebrated one of our members’ 93rd birthday! She’s been with our program for at least the past 4 years that I’ve been working. Although she’s one of the oldest members we have, there aren’t that many others still with us from four years ago when I started.
We had a great day of celebration. We only sang Happy Birthday to her about four times. An hour after the first time we sang someone saw the balloon and asked if it was indeed her birthday. “So why haven’t we sung for her yet?!!!” So we sang again, and again, but it was no chore, we all celebrated the achievement of this small, frail, elderly woman battling dementia. I’ve named some of our other members so I might as well ascribe one for her. I think Ms. Determination will do.
What struck me most today is how much our staff and volunteers have emotionally attached to Ms. Determination. Of course, this includes myself, and I was trying to weigh the pros and cons of becoming attached to the people we care for throughout the day. Is it a good thing? Should we be more or less involved on an emotional level?
