Just Another Old Lady
She was just another old lady
She sat there in a wheel chair, strapped in, her head down
Parked off to the side in hallway of the skilled nursing section
Transferred up here 4 hours ago for extended care and therapy
Sitting not eight feet from the nurses station yet never even seen
Their faces glued to monitors inputting data more real than she
She was just another old lady
Recently fallen and now suffering from a second mild heart attack
Her once clear and sharp mind was now somehow lost in medication
The heart fallen to 20 beats a minute and a pacemaker was installed
While her body fought to recover and her mind straining for her sanity
She sat in the hall, in a wheel chair, crying tears that would not come
She was just another old lady
Waiting in the hall, in a wheelchair, for a room to lay down and rest
A picture in black and blue from her fall and the pacemaker surgery
Empty rooms only a few feet away beckoned silently with open doors
Her 85 year old heart had only been beating normally now for one day
And a mind once full of dreams sat lost wondering why no one cared
As the skilled nursing unit functioned in silence passing her as if not there
She was just another old lady
Tied to a wheelchair without dignity for her fragile body was like a rag doll
Her once well cared for gray hair now like ice frosted grass blown in the wind
Eyes that looked up pleadingly now and then for recognition she was there
She could not comprehend, in here she had ceased from being a person
But only data now entered on a screen, and data did not require assistance
She was just another old lady
Asking to be put in a bed so she could be out of the wheelchair and rest
For they forced her too soon to walk because to be here you needed therapy
But if you did not respond then it was doing no good, but was being ignored ?
Where does it start I wondered, how old and injured before you are not a person
How many people does one take care of before they loose their own humanity
She was just another old lady
Once full of beauty and dreams, dark eyes that smiled, red lips that laughed
Her arms knew the joyous hugs of children and the warm of hug of her man
She touched life with all its wonders and life touched her back now and then
Sacrifices made and yet never seen by others all just a part of her hidden joy
Memories for her to dance in within herself were her escape as age closed in
And with the missed beat of a heart, even the door to them may now close
She was just another old lady
Unable to care now for herself, forced from living alone to now be with others
Tears fall slowly down old weathered cheeks from eyes now like those of a child
As a trembling hand reaches out with shaking fingers seeking another to hold
And it closes over it with the gentleness of one holding an injured bird in
caring
With roles reversed the child is now the adult and the adult becomes the child
She was just another old lady
Waiting now to see the angels around her, for she is not sure they are there
Always having believed and trusted in God and yet so private in her thoughts
She waits now to see them come, to tell her it's time to come home once again
To leave this frail worn body barely able to walk and run laughing through
heaven
Wondering now, is it true and why are they not here, why does she suffer so.
Not knowing yet, she must tell them, I am ready, I have no fear, let me come
She was just another old lady.............................but she is also my mother