My children had a very powerful experience this week. They learned what it is like to visit the elderly and how much it means to them. It started with a long overdue visit to my husband’s grandmother. He hasn’t seen her since his grandpa’s funeral 8 years ago and it was one of our main priorities during our trip to Utah. It’s very unlikely he will see her again before she passes away.
I was pleasantly surprised that she still remembered some details about me and she also has her sense of humor still. Being the stubborn woman she is, she has had several bad falls recently because she didn’t want to ask for help. She had a bracelet on that said “fall risk”. I couldn’t quite tell what it said. I asked if it said “small risk”. She laughed and explained what it said. Then my 7-year-old said, “I thought it said ‘all risk’.” That got her laughing pretty hard.
It was a very special moment when our 1-year-old daughter leaned down to let her great grandmother give her a kiss as if she already knew her and it made her day. But it made the biggest impact on my kids as we walked through the rest of the nursing home. Multiple people begged for them to come over and visit. One lady couldn’t speak, but she held my daughter’s hand for the longest time and lit up as she smiled at her. Then she reached out to grab two of my sons, hug them, and kissed them on the cheek over and over. It was a little overwhelming for them, but I explained that the people there hardly had anyone to visit with anymore, that their grandchildren rarely came to see them, and they were past the years that they could have a lot of time with their own children and their grandchildren.
I felt like I should have taken them to a nursing home in our area a long time ago, forgetting that so many people there are thrilled to see any children whether they are related to them or not. It was a very sweet experience seeing how my kids brought someone so much joy.
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