IS THERE a PAULA in YOUR LIFE?
Today’s Message of Encouragement from
Discovering A BETTER LIFE MINISTRIES
(Stories of Real People, Real Events, Real Places)
And are dedicated to providing
Spiritual FOOD FOR THOUGHT
TO HELP PEOPLE FIND HOPE
THROUGH SHARING GOD’S
GRACE and LOVE
(Ron Bainbridge Editor) (August 13th, 2020)
IS THERE a PAULA in YOUR LIFE?
Paula sat alone. Her hands, freckled with age, rested on her lap. She wore her prettiest dress. Her nursing home room embodied Spring-time – daisies in the vase, a tree blossoming on the other side of her window.
In a soft voice, Paula said: “Sundays are special, you know.”
Her nursing home wall portrayed her family: an enlargement of grandson Jason hugging “Tigger,” the terrier; a framed portrait of her son Timothy, the doctor, and his family in Albany; Paula and her now-dead husband, cutting their 40th Wedding Anniversary cake. “It would be have been 50 years next May.”
Paula sat alone. “They came last Christmas!” She declared, (as if defending her family).
A telegram and a birthday card were taped to the dressing table mirror. A Church group sang hymns down the hall. She had done her best to make the room look homely, but one can only do so much.
Fifteen hundred kilometres away a family played together.
Paula is not sick or ugly. She is not useless or decrepit. Paula is simply old. Paula is not senile, though at times, she confesses, the naïveté of senility is tempting. She doesn’t suffer from cancer or arthritis. She hasn’t had a stroke. No, her disease is much more severe. She suffers from rejection.
Our society sometimes has little room for the aged. People like Paula come in abundance. No one intentionally forgets them . . . perhaps that’s why it is so painful. If there is a reason: a fight, a mistake, a dispute, but usually it’s unintentional. Unintentional rejection! It will kill Paula; she’ll die of loneliness!
You know, it doesn’t matter how nice the Nursing Home is, nurses and other helpers don’t replace a grandchild’s smile or a son’s kiss. The truth is, too many old people suffer more from neglect than from any disease.
Friend, is there a Paula in your life? Someone having to grow old without the love and attention you could provide? If so, it’s within your control to bring some happiness into her life:
“Spend all your love on her now.
Forget not the hands, though spotted,
The hair, though thinning,
The eyes though dim.
For they are a part of you!
And when they are gone, a part of you is gone.”
“They came last Christmas,” Paula sighed.
Sometimes loneliness is the biggest thing standing between a person and happiness. If loneliness has become a dominant part in the life of some elderly person in your family, I encourage you to take the time to respond to that today.
Friend, may we never forget, that Age is a state of mind, And ‘Old’ is not useless! Perhaps, as you read the following Poem, you might be brought to the realization that no matter how old a person may be, they should be seen as a valuable human being, created in the image of God, and treated with dignity and respect.
** JUST AN "OLD LADY?” **
Some years ago, when an old lady died in the geriatric ward of a small hospital near Dundee, Scotland, it was believed that she had nothing left of any value.
Later, when the nurses were going through her meager possessions, they found this simple, but eloquent poem. Its quality and content so impressed the staff that copies were made and distributed to every nurse in the hospital. One nurse took her copy to Ireland. The old lady's sole bequest to posterity has since appeared in the Christmas edition of the News Magazine of the North Ireland Association for Mental Health.
This little old Scottish lady, with nothing left to give to the world, is now the author of this "anonymous" poem winging across the Internet: “Crabby Old Woman” “What do you see, nurses? What do you see? What are you thinking When you're looking at me?
A crabby old woman, Not very wise, Uncertain of habit, With faraway eyes?
Who dribbles her food And makes no reply, When you say in a loud voice, ‘I do wish you'd try!’
Who seems not to notice The things that you do, And forever is losing A stocking or shoe?
Who, resisting or not, Lets you do as you will, With bathing and feeding, The long day to fill?
Is that what you're thinking? Is that what you see? Then open your eyes, nurse, You're not looking at me.
I'll tell you who I am As I sit here so still, As I do at your bidding, As I eat at your will.
I'm a small child of ten, With a father and mother, Brothers and sisters, Who love one another.
A young girl of sixteen, With wings on her feet Dreaming that soon now A lover she'll meet.
A bride soon at twenty! My heart gives a leap, Remembering the vows, That I promised to keep.
At twenty-five now, I have young of my own, Who need me to guide And a secure happy home.
A woman of thirty, My young now grown fast, Bound to each other With ties that should last.
At forty, my young sons Have grown and are gone, But my man's beside me To see I don't mourn.
At fifty once more! Babies play round my knee. Again we know children. My loved one and me!
Dark days are upon me. My husband is dead. I look at the future. I shudder with dread.
For my young are all rearing Young of their own. And I think of the years And the love that I've known.
I'm now an old woman
And nature is cruel;
'Tis jest to make old age Look like a fool.
The body, it crumbles. Grace and vigor depart. There is now a stone Where I once had a heart.
But inside this old carcass A young girl still dwells. And now and again, My battered heart swells.
I remember the joys I remember the pain. And I'm loving and living Life over again.
I think of the years
All too few, gone too fast And accept the stark fact That nothing can last.
So open your eyes people! Open and see! Not a crabby old woman. Look closer. . . See ME!!
Friend, I sincerely hope you will remember this poem when you next meet an old person who you might be tempted to brush aside without looking at the person within.
Remember, we will all, one day, be there, too!
If you feel that you need some assistance for yourself, or in helping a family member to attack the agony of loneliness, please write and ask for our FREE copies of “Attacking the agony of loneliness” and “THE LONELINESS PLAN.”
To receive these booklets, simply address your request to Discovering A BETTER LIFE, P.O. Box 1540, Albany, Western Australia. 6331. Phone us on: (08) 98 418 418 or you may Email us at: abl-alb@omninet.net.au
“Never look down on anybody unless
You are helping them up.”
(Jesse Jackson)
Friend, if you would like to read more human interest stories, we invite you to visit our Website Blog at:
“Growing Old is a Privilege!”
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