This is an account of a 92 year old, petite, well poised and proud lady, who is fully dressed by eight o'clock, with her hair fashionably coiffed and makeup perfectly applied, even though she is legally blind. Her husband of 70 years recently passed away, making the move to a nursing home necessary. After many hours of waiting patiently in the lobby of the nursing home, she smiled sweetly when they told her, her room was ready.
As she maneuvered her walker to the elevator, I provided a visual description of her tiny room, including the eyelet sheets that had been hung on her window. "I love it," she stated, with the enthusiasm of an eight year old, having just been presented with a new puppy.
"Mrs. Jones, you haven't seen the room...just wait."
"That doesn't have anything to do with it," she replied.
"Happiness is something you decide on ahead of time. Whether I like my room or not doesn't depend on how the furniture is arranged.... it's how I arrange it in my mind. I already decided to love it. It's a decision I make every morning when I wake up. I have a choice; I can spend my day in bed recounting the difficulty I have with the parts of my body that no longer work, or get out of bed and be thankful for the ones that do.
"Each day is a gift, and as long as my eyes open I'll focus on the new day and all the happy memories I have stored away... just for this time in my life. Old age is like a bank account.... you withdraw from what you've put in. So, my advice to you would be to deposit a lot of happiness in the bank account of memories."
Ruth Marlene Friesen
The Responsible One
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Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada