The Gift of Gladys

For the last five weeks I have made a weekly visit to see Gladys. I knew she would be entertaining. I knew she would have stories to tell.I knew I could ask her things. I knew I would enjoy my visits but I didn’t know what a gift they would be to me.Last night after returning from our visit I realized the wonderful reminder spending time with Gladys is for me. It reminds me to pay attention to the details, remember the important stuff about this life we live and treasure each day.These are precepts I try to live by anyway but what really shouts at me as I leave the nursing home where I see so many who have lost so much of their former selves is to value the stage of life I am presently in. Gladys is making the best of her current location. She has paintings and photographs of several of her previous homes on the walls and shelves surrounding her. She recalls with precise detail the rooms of each of them . In the small room she now inhabits she has dreams where she is upstairs in one of those homes. She watches her days unfold in a much different rhythm than the days of being a busy mother, farm wife, grandmother and a vital part of her community.I leave and come home to the life she had thirty some years ago. I watch this amazing woman still so sharp sitting now in the decline of her final days, months or whatever time she has left and it causes me to truly appreciate my day to day. If I am to be as lucky as Gladys and see my 95th year I hope the remainder of my time will be even richer from the lessons she is teaching me.Thank you Gladys!