“You are BEAUTIFUL!”
I woke up at eight in the morning on a Sunday. I looked out my window to see the left over dew from last night. The sky was still dark. I got dressed and I walked out to the living room only to find out my family was going to a care home to visit the elderly. It was going to be my first time. So I went back to my room to change my outfit. I had spent that whole morning trying to look presentable because I had believed they were old, judgmental, teen hating people.
As I rode in the car my hands had never ending dew on it, my nails were bitten to the core, and my hands were trembling. I felt like I was an older lady going through menopause.
The door opened. It was time for me to face my fears and walk in and act like I liked old people. The house was enormous with all the elderly men and women waiting to be visited my other human beings not living in their house.
They were all wearing blankets even though it was extremely stuffy in the house. All the elderly people looked immaculate instead of smelly, unclean, and dying with sickness as my imagination reared to. Their faces brightened and they showed their teeth with gladness in their hearts.
I stopped and stood staring straight in the eyes of an elderly woman. I put my hand out to a lady named Ruth and I meekly croaked “Hi, my name is Ashley.”
To my dismay the elderly woman exclaimed, “You are BEAUTIFUL.”
My heart lurched. I felt terrible for all those horrible thoughts.
I stared at the woman and murmured, “Thanks.”
Humbly I went around the room greeting all the other residents with a little bit of confidence.
“Hello” I said to an elderly man named John.
“Good morning” he replied “You look just like my eldest daughter. She was gorgeous… just like you”
I had heard that he said was. Was she not living? Had he outlived his own children? Then it struck me these people used to be teens just like me, they all had to go through hardship, and some even outlived their whole family. They had families and they had been at the very end of their lives still waiting for their end to come.
“I bet she was wonderful” I humbly spoke.
“She was” John spoke softly with his head down.
I do not know till this day if a tear went down his face, but I do know the love he had for his daughter was as strong as a two edged sword.
I realized elderly people were not terrible, retched, uncaring people. They were as sweet as sugar.
Every one of them seemed to have something nice to say to me and I felt my spirits lift. I listened to stories of the men fighting in World War Two and of the women fighting to go to college and get a career soon getting married and having children. They had been through so much and here I was taking advantage of my blessed life. I realized their generation was amazing because they worked hard for what they wanted; everything was not handed to them on a silver platter like teenagers want it to be in my generation. I had been wrong.