It’s Thursday!

I love Thursdays.  It’s when I get to go and spend time with my friends at the nursing home and do “crafts” with them.  Anne (my partner in crime there) and I have figured out that, with the exception of just a few, the more simple the better.

The theme this month is Western.  So today’s project was to select a picture to color in – a cowboy boot, a cowboy, a horse, a bonfire, or a cactus.

Now keep in mind, a good number of these people have Alzheimer’s and can’t read or write.  We weren’t sure exactly how they would do with this project, wow!  They rocked coloring, being extremely precise, not one of them coloring out of the lines.  And they were totally into it.  It was as if it gave them a great sense of accomplishment and feeling of a bit of control over a tiny piece of their surroundings.  They blew my mind!

This is Erlene’s picture.  It took her a solid hour to color this, but she was so proud!  Girl colors better than me!

This is Eola.  She even colored the sky!  She is 101 and still reads romance novels!  You go, girl!

Our friend, Molly, is physically impaired but still sharp as a tack.  She wanted something a little more challenging.  So she worked on a word search and found every single hidden treasure!  She was giggling as she said, “I haven’t done one of these in years!”

This last picture is of my friend Juanita.  I know I shouldn’t have favorites but if I DID, she would be one of them.  🙂  She is 97 and still wears long pink nails.  She is a feisty, happy little lady that doesn’t remember the same conversation that we have over and over.  Today she was sitting by a man named Miguel.  I asked if she knew him.  She said, “I haven’t laid eyes on him a day in my life!”  which may or may not be true.  She may have had breakfast with him just hours earlier.  I introduce the two of them and she realizes that, like her, he is of Mexican or Spanish descent.  She asks him a question in spanish and responds in spanish.  She looks pleased as punch and asks him again what his name is.  Apparently the common language between them made them fast friends and they began teasing/flirting with each other.  Then she looks up at me and says, “Is he trying to pick a fight with me?”  I smile and tell her it looks that way to me.  At which point she puts up two fists and says, “Wanna fight?”  Then she laughs and laughs.  We ended up having to separate them, not sure how that scenario might play out. 🙂

Juanita colored three pictures today and kept asking, “What do I do now?”  After the seventh time of telling her she could rest her hands for a bit and just look pretty, we showed her a picture of two cowboys on horses facing each other.  There was a conversation bubble above each of their heads  that was blank to be filled in with whatever each resident wanted them to say.  “What is this cowboy saying to that cowboy,” we asked.  She thought for a minute and said, “He’s saying my horse is better than yours!”   That was funny enough, but then we asked what the other cowboy was saying in response.  She frowned and said, “He’s saying ‘you’re a big fat liar.’ ”  Then we laughed and laughed together.   Every so often she would pick up the picture again and read what we’d written above the cowboys’ heads.  She’d throw back her head and laugh as if she’d never thought or heard the words before.

I wish I could take pictures to share their sweet faces with you, but I have to get written permission first.  But can I tell you, I just love my time with them.  They are so sweet.  So innocent.  So thankful for the time spent and the conversations had, even if they make little sense.  Whether it’s Miguel kissing my hand or Josephine giving me a smile or Juanita telling me a story or John calling me “babe”, I come out of that place with a huge grin on my face every single time.

Yep.  Thursdays are a really, really good day 🙂