Every Tuesday for work we visit the alzheimer's division of a rest home, so naturally, a lot of the people are a little off their rocker. But some of them are still mostly there. I like to talk to Cathrine (the craziest one of all), because she's always smiling and laughing and talking about more nonsense than I've ever dreamed of.
There's also this guy there named Jon. Apparently he has a PhD in physics, so pretty much he's da bomb. His wife lives at this rest home, but on a different level so she's not around him all the time, but visits often. Today Jon seemed really down, so they had his wife come visit him. Immediately Jon's face lit up and seemed much more happy and up lifted. They had their visit and then it came time for Olga to leave. Jon understood this concept so he wanted to kiss her goodbye. Now, Olga is in a wheelchair and Jon can't hardly stand up with out toppling over. At first he tried bending over in his chair to kiss her, but his hat got in the way and he couldn't get a good enough angle, so with the help of a couple nurses, he was able to stand up and go in for a goodbye kiss. They had turned his hat around backwards... The nurses started to wheel Olga away, but Jon wouldn't let go of her hands, and he kept kissing them. Over and over again. The nurses had to assure him She'd be back, but it wasn't enough for Jon. The whole goodbye ordeal took a good while because Jon didn't want to let go and wouldn't stop kissing the hands of his dear, sweet wife.
Suddenly I couldn't hear anything Cathrine was saying about the green stuff on her hand (there wasn't anything there), but instead the only thing I could fix my attention on was this tender and precious scene.
I cried.
I would have bawled, but remembered I was still pretty public. I don't know why, but it touched me so deeply to see this 80 or 90 year old couple still so very much in love. It broke my heart to watch them part, It broke my heart to see that they aren't in the same state as they used to be, and it broke my heart that they couldn't be together at the rest home always. But even in the state that they were, they still acknowledged their love for each other.
I'm excited to be with someone who I love so much, that when we're old and crazy, we can still be around to love each other.
I'm grateful for the example of love that Jon and Olga were today. Think of all the years of experience they've had together, and here they were, holding on to the last strings of life and they publicly and proudly displayed the love they have for each other. True love, baby.
9 comments:
wow... that was a touching story. I miss you!
I think the tough part in getting to that point is going through all the hard years together when life isn't great, or the relationship isn't great, but staying with it and being there for each other anyway, and then after 20 or 30 years (or more) realizing the fruits of the comittment, must be a wonderful thing to say "we made it, and I couldn't have made it without you". There are certainly no guarantees, and that's what makes it all the better.
If I get old I hope I am like that. That was a nice story. And the lady with the green stuff... it would be interesting to talk to her!
I love my amazing hubby! 30 more years and counting...
I think it's the years of being together, yes, but i think there's more to it than meets the eye. (not transformers.) I've been reading up on this lately (of course) and asking myself "Why do people have to get married?" We know it's a rule/commandment form the bible, but why? I thought about it on my mission a whole lot, because people just wouldn't get married, they wouldn't make the commitment, even after 15 years or more of living together and having children. I think it's to make things perfect, or potentially perfect. Eve was made from rib of Adam's, and Adam without a rib was rendered incomplete/perfect. Without Eve, he was done for. When married in whatever religion, you act as one, one person, together. You become the other person, and they become you, and without a part of you, especially someone you love so much and shared so much, it's not a very happy scene. I mean there's no substitute for the experiences you have together, and especially no substitute for the love and commitment to each other. There's only one of them, and one of you. It's unique, and beautiful. Thanks for the story Alison, it really shed some light on how things should be, and how they're meant to be. I'm done rambling now.
But definitely, all in all, it seems to me, from observance, makes living worth living.
I love that. So cute. I hope Bob and I get to be that old together. I took an aging class last semester and now feel doomed to be a widow for the last twenty years of my life. I tell Bob that he needs to be fit and eat healthy and I'll be a lazy bum and eat crap and, with luck, our deaths should match up to be around the same time. Morbid I know, but kind of romantic . . . in a really morbid way.
cute! i went to visit my grandpa in his nursing home place a few days ago and i felt very similar feelings. you've motivated me to blog about it! so check back soon :)
That's so cute! I love elderly people. My job would absolutely suck (I'm a CNA at a nursing home with alzheimer's residents, etc.) if it weren't for experiences like the one you had. Thanks for sharing. Another cool experience to have is when you hear the testimonies of these old souls. John, a resident of mine, bore powerful testimony to me of the BOM ast summer when I was having troubles. His words hit home in a profound way for me and I balled. Gotta love that stuff.
Post a Comment