Against All Odds!!

I spent the better part of the week playing 'Florence's Advocate' at our local hospital as she recuperated from asthmatic bronchitis. My mom is one of the more fortunate patients in that she has me to watch over her and her care. Neither one of her two roommates had a cheerleader there, and were pretty much at the mercy of those in charge. Martha [not her real name], one hundred years and eight months old, still lives alone taking care of her own needs herself. Predeceased by one son, and her other son living in New Mexico, when Martha fell and was brought to the hospital , she was kind of like in a boat with no oars, so to speak. Hard of hearing, friendly, and easy to get along with, she has beautiful blue eyes and a deservedly wrinkly face crafted from 100 years of life. I couldn't stop myself from stepping in as a daughter-by-proxy and tried to help her if/when I could. Returning the next day, I brought her a flower for her tray. Turned out to be a good thing because it was all she had along with a box of Ritz crackers and Cheese-Whiz to accompany her to rehab in a local nursing home. Somehow her clothes and even her shoes had been misplaced. She never complained. They wheeled her out in her hospital gown with the rose in her hand, and she was smiling. Martha is a survivor, and a 'tough old bird' as Mom likes to refer to herself.
And then Roommate #2 was wheeled in for some much needed attention. Beatrice [again, a pseudonym], is a seventy-one year old woman dealing with multiple sclerosis from the age of twenty-five. She has no children, one sister more than an hour away, a less than supportive husband with his own issues, and therefore...not a great support system. Her conversation required extra attention but her laughter was effortless and contagious. You just had to get past her physical disability. And ask her to, "Slow down...you're talking faster than I can listen!!!" I offered my help whenever I could be of help.

I was a witness to many shifts and personnel attending to these patients along with my mom. And it brought back memories of Flo's stroke and subsequent rehab three years ago. There are never enough people working, and while most of them are wonderful, caring souls, I wonder how they can manage a positive attitude when they are spread so thin.
How they maintain a positive attitude and manage to help people in a compassionate way with heartfelt sincerity and cheerfulness is a calling, for sure.

I think that I was reminded that you don't have to know a person to be a friend. A great amount of the circumstances that control our lives happened randomly in the beginning...where we were born and to whom. Some people see rain as an inconvenience, and others see rain as the life force for the planet. It makes me crazy when people treat each other badly. Be a part of the solution. When you see a chance to be a positive force in someone's life...take it. Isn't it the very essence of the 'Golden Rule'?