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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Community Comment

A comment about where I currently thrive…

Good morning, Netizens...

I wrote the following post for Facebook, but since so many people have contacted me about it, I decided to share it with folks via Community Comment, since typing still is very frustrating and SLOW. Here it is...

Life, for me, has always been a series of huge and often perplexing (to others) steps done according to what I felt was right. Sometimes I got it about right; other times I missed a bit, and paid for the errors of my errant travels. Now, in the shadow of my years, I am called upon to take tiny and often frustrating steps. My body is healing far too slowly, in my opinion, and I am very dependent upon many others for my continued well-being. But in the midst of all this pandemonium and chaos, I am surrounded by greatness, love and compassion.
Yesterday, I witnessed Ruth Berning, the program director, at adult Day Health, step aside from her role as the head of Adult Day Health's programs to become what the Adult Day Health has come to epitomize, what a COMPASSIONATE environment can be like for dementia and Alzheimers patients.
Each day at Adult Day Health, I typically spend a few hours by myself reading. Yesterday while I was thus involved, a woman in a wheelchair came just outside my lair and was sobbing inconsolably, nearly hysterically, all alone in the hallway. I was about to loudly call for someone to help this woman when Ruth came down the hall, looking for the source of the sobbing.
Someone had moved this woman from where she had been sitting, and she could not remember how to get back to where she had been. She was terrified, confused and very alone and she could not stop crying.
Ruth took this old woman with frizzy grey hair in her arms like you might take a tiny infant and rocked her gently, cooing to her and soothing her and wiping away her tears. Suddenly I was crying, too. It was one of the most moving things I have ever had the privilege to see.
I think now I see my path clearly, why I was called back from the grave at ICU. For in a simple declarative sentence I say proudly, "here am I, Lord, send me."

Hopefully, I will be able to post more tales as time goes by.

Dave



Spokesman-Review readers blog about news and issues in Spokane written by Dave Laird.