Stories

The elderly all lived life at one time.  I feel that often times younger generations will look at the elderly and forget that they too at one time bought houses, fell in love, raised children, listened to beautiful music, watched interesting movies, shopped.  Though their values may have been different, humans are humans, and times are not so different that the men and women before us didn't also have great passions, ambitions, and desires.

One of our residents here was an engineer.  What did it take her to get there?  What sort of obstacles did she climb -- because you know she must have had many.  Another resident had a husband who sat on City Council.  They travelled all over the world for various occasions -- what sort of adventures did they go on, what sort of food and drink did they try, what sort of people did they meet?  Many of our residents of course were housewives.  What sort of funny stories did they have with their children?  What sort of days did they have?  What sort of communities were they a part of?  Another resident we had taught collegiate English and managed a growing business.  How did she handle both?  What sort of challenges did she face?

I think it's easy to distance ourselves from these stories out of a fear of getting to where they are.  But if you stop and look around, you'll realize that these people all had rich lives with a wealth of friendships and dreams as well.