I figured I would tell you about a day in my life and a wonderful senior citizen that I have the pleasure of knowing -- I am writing this on Oct.30th 2001 and this is the story of how my Tuesday has been.

My morning started with the phone on my dresser ringing to wake me up. It was the emergency alert system calling to tell me that they had a distress call from the 87 year old lady that I monitor  (her name is Henrietta but I call her Henny).

She had pushed the button on her wrist band  which sends them a distress alert. So up I got -- threw on some clothes ran the comb through my hair and out the door I went. Driving over to her house was not amusing as my windshield was covered in frost and I could barely see through the space I had cleared in the corner.

Luckily she is only a few blocks from me so I arrived in under 5 minutes. Then I discovered that I had forgotten my key to her house! ( Panic attack for a moment here ) Thank heavens she is an early riser and her front door was unlocked. I rushed into the house to find her laying on the floor in her furnace/laundry room. Try as I might I could not lift her up. She is only tiny but a dead weight none the less. 

All I was doing was making my hips and back scream at me each time I tried to lift her. So I checked her all over to be sure she had not broken anything and was not bleeding anywhere and then I made her comfortable and came back home to get my brother Bill, whom I had woken up before I left the house so he knew where I was going.

He came back with me to Henny's house and like magic he lifted her off the floor into a chair and I checked her all over again to be sure I had not missed anything the first time.

It turned out that she had gone out onto her back stoop to get a large garbage bag so she could bring it into the house to put her garbage in. When she came back through the door her weak leg had given out and down she fell. She could not get back up by herself because she could not get to her knees to pull herself up.

My own body was screaming from trying to lift Henny and I knew right away that though I hated it I would probably have to end up taking some of my own pain killers before this day was out.  

I had been woken from my sleep so I had not had my first cup of tea or my first smoke of the day and I wanted a nice hot shower so bad. However I could no more leave her (although by now I knew she had not broken anything ) than fly. 

We sat with her for awhile and I brushed her hair as she sat and smiled and then I went and made her bed.  I sat in a chair and watched her sweet face as she talked  --my heart filled with love for this old lady. Although she looks frail as a butterfly her spirit is high and she is articulate and intelligent and funny. You would never know to look at her that she is 87. She had a stroke last year and it has left her left arm and leg weak. She insists on living in her own house where she and her deceased husband shared so many years and memories. She does her own housework for the most part and loves to read the newspapers. A homemaker comes in 3 times a week for an hour each time to help her bathe and do odds and ends for her. She makes her own meals and locks her house up each night by herself.

Henny told me how she loves to sit in the room where her husband used to sit and read. She feels closer to him there. She told me how there were 2 armchairs so they each had one of their own to sit in while they read or watched tv. Her eyes lit up as she talked about him. In her memories he is still her hero. Still the love of her life. Still there beside her.

A smile crossed her face and she asked if I would like to see her gallery. Of course I said yes, for two reasons. One I would be able to observe her walking to see if she was really ok and two because I could see it meant a lot to her to show me the gallery she had showed me a dozen times before.  Her gallery is a little sewing room with pictures of her grandchildren pinned up on the wall. How proud she is of all those pictures. Once again I learned each grandchild's name and where they lived (and forgot it as soon as she told me because there are just too many names to remember LOL ) and how special each child was. 

Finally after a couple of hours and her solemn promise that she would not try to go outside again and my brother's promise to come over on Saturday and rake her leaves up so her yard was nice and clean (it is all the neighbours fault you know because she does not have maple trees in her yard to mess it up) I decided it was time to come home and get at my own work. After hugs and kisses I turned to leave Henny's house and watched out of the corner of my eye as she blew kisses to my brother.

So my brother and I came home and I took down all my curtains and washed them and rehung them and my brother cleaned all the windows. While my curtains were washing I had my first cup of tea of the day and a smoke and sat and smiled to myself as I went through my morning's conversation with Henny.

How I hope when I am her age of 87 that I am as articulate and as intelligent and smile as much as my sweet Henny does.  humm I wonder if when I am her age someone will want to sit and listen to me reminisce.

Well it is now 1 in the afternoon and I have more housework to do so I shall be off for now............

Until next time 
hugs  Misker