She reaches over to me and grasps my hand and holds on tight. As we sat, hand in hand, Alan Jackson music videos playing on the tv, she gently closes her eyes and sighs.
This is now what I do on Tuesday mornings, at the local nursing home. I sit with the residents, visit, chat, and wheel them around to their various activites. I call it wheel chair taxi service. They had me sit with this particular lady during music hour because she kept trying to get out of her chair. she seemed so uncomfortable and agitated. My heart broke for her and wished there was something more I could do. I started rubbing her back and then she reached for my hand. It seemed so simple, but it seemed to comfort her. I went home and washed my dishes and carried on with the rest of my day, all the while thinking about her sitting there alone.
Later I’m hauling people back to thier rooms, realizing that there are ALOT of Marys! It’s kind of hard to keep them all straight and I am so afraid that I’ll drop one off at the wrong room! Then the other day I was loading ladies onto the elevator to take them upstairs and the worst thing happened. I wheeled one on and then turned around to grab the other one and the doors had closed! In a moment of panic I imagined her ridding up there all alone and arriving with no one to retrieve her! They’d fire me for sure. Oh wait I’m just a volunteer….getting fired from being a volunteer would be worse! So I quickly pressed the button and the door opened and to my relief, there she was. Phew, maybe they won’t fire me after all!
I know this isn’t about art but, it sort of is. Art is alot of times inspired by life. Life is art in it’s own way. And I draw alot of what I create from observing, noticing and processing the beauty of life. My soul feels strengthed by all these wonderful people that I have the privilage of meeting at the nursing home and it feels good to be there for them. It is facinating the hear their stories and the memories from the lives they have lived.
I was taking a lady back to her room and I saw two beautiful canvas paintings of landscapes resting on her couch. So I asked her who painted those and with pride she pronounced “I did!” So of course I told her that I paint too and we had a lovely conversation about art. And I told her I’d show her some of my paintings sometime.
“We won’t be able to really bear living unless we really bear each other’s burdens.” Ann Voskamp