Combining a passion for writing and geriatric nursing/care management, I wanted to share some “NURSING HOME” insights; #nursinghomes with you today. My prayer today is for nursing home residents, and those who love and care for them. This insight below is inspired from my first book “Dawn-ings”which contains excerpts from personal journals. At the time I wrote the original version, in the early 1990’s, I was a long-term care consultant and RN LTCF Ombudsman for Middle TN area long-term care facilities. I often wondered about the precious souls we care for in the long-term care facilities across America’s landscapes. And I still do!

“Early morning, just after dawn… the golden sun peeks in and shoots across the room of an elderly woman who is bedridden and deemed disoriented times three… unaware of person, place, or time. Time stands still as I look upon her face and see beyond the reality of a bedridden woman. The morning sky gradually brightens the room, and she awakens. Her eyes, although cloudy, find mine. We gaze into the windows of each other’s soul, and I am caught beyond the realm of my present occupation. I ponder as I wait for fruition… I know in my heart that she is much more than a bedridden and disoriented nursing home resident. I look upon her weathered skin and can’t help to wonder if she liked the sunshine…Scoping her facial features, I see a beautiful bone structure. I question who she may have resembled in her family. I imagine a beautiful young woman in a cotton dress, hanging clothes out on the line. (The community here at this location is rural with an agricultural climate.) I imagine her several decades ago- she may have worn sandals on such a sunny day as this, or she may have preferred her bare feet on the soft, green grass! I can only imagine how she may have welcomed such a lovely morning as this. As I place her fragile hand in mine, I wonder about all the chores she must have done and what good deeds bestowed her. Only the Lord knows now. Although she is unable to speak to me and appears to have a blank stare, I wonder still, who and what she may have loved or longed for, how she must have spent her days in childhood; and I wonder mostly about how one day soon she will be youthful as she can be when she sees the Lord! But for now, I sit still and ponder aging, as the sun moves more upwardly with its beams warming me and warming her in two different ways. I think of all the ageless and priceless things in life such as love and faith and family and purpose or meaning. A bird song is heard from the window nearby, and I wonder still, who will come to see her today?”