Oh, today was quite the quirky day of beyond normal experiences. I sort of figured it would be like that because I found myself doing things early this morning out of the ordinary as well. Perhaps it was the celestial positioning of the planets and stars that was having an effect on us.
This morning I had to get a signature on a document from an elderly woman. I walked into her kitchen and sat down at the table. While she was fussing about looking for some information she wanted to give me, I noticed out of the corner of my eye movement on her kitchen floor. As I focused on the movement, I noticed ants crawling. The more I looked, the more I saw until I had scanned nearly the entire kitchen floor. She likely had about a hundred ants crawling on her floor and countertops. I bristled inside and looked to see if there were on the table. Thank goodness I didn’t see any as I didn’t want to embarrass her by getting up and standing while there. She finally found what she was looking for and grabbed her reading glasses from the kitchen countertop. She slipped her glasses on and with pen in hand signed the necessary document. We visited for a few minutes and when I looked at her, I noticed two ants crawling across the bridge of her glasses and she didn’t even notice them! Just before I left, I soulfully mentioned to her that she needed to spray for ants as I noticed a FEW on her kitchen floor.
Later on today, I stopped and had coffee with an elderly gentleman who lost his license due to his vision loss. I normally don’t stay any longer than fifteen minutes, but today he wanted to visit longer and was looking for thinks to talk about. He noticed the tie I was wearing and mentioned how nice it looked on me. He continued to look at it and asked me what the continuous pattern was. He was seated quite close to me and before I could swallow the coffee and tell him what the images were, he said, “Oh, I see them now. They’re elephants.” I pulled my tie closer to him and showed him that the pattern of images were not elephants, but rather palm trees.
I can indeed understand why so many of the elderly get frustrated with themselves as well as the world around them. I would wager there are far more seniors suffering from depression than anyone would ever imagine. It’s embarrassing as well as continually humbly to them when they can’t see well enough nor hear well enough to be socially active on a daily basis. Having been around the mentally disabling effects of people who are loosing their audio, visual, and physical mobility, I can say without a doubt that they indeed appreciate those who take time out of their lives and communicate with them.
Yes, I did smile to myself later today while thinking about the ants and elephants that entered my life.
