The Elderly Part I

It was a long time ago that my then 85 year old grandmother TOLD my two young sons to please refrain from calling her OLD, to refer to her as ELDERLY in future.

Since that day, neither of them have called her old. They have respected it completely. They are still not fussed on 'doing the visits' as we call it. Three elderly ladies, all in a row. If they have tricked me into thinking they are sick and stay home from school, to suddenly feel better an hour after, then we 'do the visits'.

Today we did the visits but it was different. The Big Man and I went first to Grand Nana... very deep into her dementia, has lost all of her vocab and is very still. But her little eyes light up when she sees anyone, me too so that is nice. The man next to her took a liking to my arm and continued to rub and kiss it as I talked to Grand Nana. The Big Man just watched in silence as I allowed this to happen, then turned, kissed the gentleman on the cheek as I removed my arm from his grasp.

On the way out we came across Mister Jim. I asked him to tell The Big Man how old he was.

"Seventy!" he says, puffing his chest out with pride.
"WOW" says The Big Man with obvious admiration.
"Mister Jim, you are 70 plus....?" I prompt him, knowing that he is EXTREMELY proud of his age.
Mister Jim raised himself to his full height in the chair, making his cardy to move, and allowing us a peek at his suspenders holding his trousers up... "I am 98! Come here boy and shake the hand of a 98 year old!"
The Big Man shook his hand, a broad grin crossing his face, he broke into a really big smile, a rarity in The Big Man.

RRR, the house dog skits around the hallway wanting to play. It is quiet and peaceful, but Mister Jim has just given this young man a moment... man to man.

I love watching it. It made me smile... I think it was just what he needed.