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Boring? Not on your life!

6/25/2021

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Who says living in a nursing home has to be dull? In the novel bearing her name, Sadie Sparrow and her friends find life at The Hickories endlessly engaging – and sometimes quite mysterious, as this excerpt demonstrates.
 
 
Sadie and Gladys brunched together on Sunday, enjoying a feast of fresh strawberries and blackberries, French toast with maple syrup, bacon that was every bit as crisp as any Sadie had ever had, as much orange juice as they wanted, and coffee that tasted like something you’d get at a fancy cafe.
 
Gladys shocked Sadie by calling the meal “good” and then shocked her again by pointing out that Marcia at Table Nine was on “the thick stuff.”
 
“Do you mean thickened liquids?” Sadie was ashamed that she’d let that subject slip to the back burner in recent days, her new spiritual life and time with Jamie being foremost on her mind.
 
“If that’s what you want to call it,” Gladys sniffed, “although I don’t know why you always have to make everything so complicated. Pretending to be something you’re not.”
 
“‘Thick stuff’ is just fine with me,” Sadie said, humbled by the rebuke. “So how did you find out?”
 
One of Gladys’s nicer traits was her willingness to leave a hurt behind. “Before you got here, I heard her complaining about it to the servers. But they wouldn’t help her. I think it’s a crime.”
 
“A crime?”
 
“Without a doubt.” Gladys lowered her voice and glanced back over her shoulders to make sure no one was eavesdropping. “It kills people, you know. If you don’t get enough to drink, you get fuzzy headed and then you die. I’ve seen it happen again and again.”
 
Gladys had lived at The Hickories for several years, and Sadie didn’t doubt that she knew a lot more than she let on.
 
“Have any of your—have you known anyone who’s been on it?”
 
Gladys eyed Sadie up before answering. “My friends, you mean? Were you assuming I haven’t had any friends here?”
 
“No, of course not, I just meant—”
 
“I’ll have you know that I’ve had plenty of friends here. It’s just that they’ve all died or gone home.”
 
“Of course you have.” Sadie felt her face flush; she’d been caught red-handed. She quickly changed gears. “So have any of them been on the thick stuff?”
 
“Yes, and they’ve all died within weeks, except for one. Her name was Ida—she lived next door to me. She survived for two years on the stuff, finally had a coronary.”
 
“Well, then, if Ida made it that long, maybe it’s not so bad after all,” said Sadie, hoping for a silver lining.
 
Gladys looked around for eavesdroppers again. “It’s not so bad if someone is sneaking you water and soda every day,” she whispered. “I kept her supplied.”
 
“Why Gladys,” Sadie whispered back, impressed. “You really do have a heart, don’t you?”
 
Gladys glared at her. “Don’t you dare tell anyone.”
 
--From The Song of Sadie Sparrow, pages 221-222
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A reminder about memory loss

6/16/2021

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I know a woman who asks, during every pause in the conversation, “What time is it?” Yet her recall of the Bible is uncanny – instant, complete, accurate, and almost always 100% pertinent to the discussion.
 
Another sweet old friend comments repeatedly about the beauty of her surroundings and the kindness of her caregivers – same words, delivered with the same radiantly engaging smile, time and time again. But show her an 80-year-old photo of her extended family and she’ll fill you in on all the details of each member’s life.
 
If you’ve spent much time with the very aged, you’re no doubt familiar with this sort of collapse of short-term memory. And if you’re getting up there in years yourself, you’re probably beginning to identify with those who are already well into this journey.
 
For those who have yet to experience it, it’s hard to describe.
 
Maybe it’s like losing your Random Access Memory (and probably some other kinds of memory, too. I used to understand all this but I forget.) You can’t instantly recall what was said 10 minutes ago, or even 10 seconds ago. That information is available only via a thorough search of your memory bank – except that before long, you can’t remember what you were searching for.
 
Or maybe it’s more like when you’re falling asleep and random, disjointed thoughts begin cascading through your mind, each one blotting out the last, making you wonder repeatedly, “where was I going with that thought?”  Except that when you’re suffering from short-term memory loss, you can experience this when you’re wide awake.
 
Can anything be done about it?  Simply trying harder doesn’t help; either there’s no longer a viable storage spot for new information, or the librarian in charge of storing and retrieving that information is on permanent hiatus.  There’s some hope that mentally stimulating exercises like crossword puzzles will at least delay memory decline, but the jury still seems to be out on that score.
 
I say all this because I’ve lately been noticing some eye-rolling and whispering in the presence of such mental lapses – the same sort of eye-rolling and whispering I no doubt did in my younger days, when the possibility of personal aging never crossed my mind.
 
This is just a gentle reminder, for those whose memories are still intact, that there but for the grace of God go any of us.  Please be kind.
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    Kitty
    Foth-Regner

    I'm a follower of Jesus Christ, a freelance copywriter, a nursing-home volunteer, and the author of books both in-process and published -- including
    Heaven Without Her.

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