A Faded Sparkle

Up the street from me is a retirement home. I've never actually ventured inside it, no real need to, but I do walk past it every day--often three times a day. I've become accustomed to the faces I see sitting out on the patio . I wave and smile with a friendly greeting as I go on my way. Most the time nothing more than a quiet wave or nod of the head is returned. That is unless one of the lesser stable minded ladies is out and about walking in 90 degree weather in her black knee highs. Then I usually get some sort of verbal recognition beyond understanding in the English tongue--nevertheless, it's nice because it's more than the norm.

Sometimes when I'm out walking, I notice an ambulance parked out front of the retirement home. Now, although I've never seen the paramedics transporting anyone out of the home, and I can't say I've even ever heard anyone in a panicked mindset, or anyone at all but the lone parked ambulance, it always makes me feel a bit saddened inside. It does bring a sense of mortality to your thoughts.

When I say saddened I don't mean for the impending loss of my own life ...but I think about the news that the families will receive about the loss of their loved one. That that day will forever be marked and life is changed for that family. Date X won't be just date X any more, but rather...The day that [insert family member's name] passed away. And each year that that date passes, will surface, even if briefly, a moment of remembrance and heartache.

So what goes through the minds of the lovely people that reside in this home up the street? What do they think about when that ambulance pulls up? And how do people feel when the nice gentleman or lady that had the corner room on the third floor is no longer needing it because he/she left on an ambulance trip? Do they still talk at dinner when the person doesn't return? or do they sit in silence? And do the managers/landlords/staff (whatever they are called at this home)...do the {caretakers} offer any condolences? Do the residents want that? or would they rather just not think on it? From the outside looking in, I think a situation such at that would be so difficult.

What really gets to me though, is when I pass the front entrance of the home and walk down the side, past the dining room, and past the room with the neat bird feeder outside the window, and past one of the few rooms that has a window air conditioning unit which must be so nice to have on a hot day and I bet that their room is just packed with as many friends and so-called friends as possible just so they all can cool off because it's unbearable outside....When I pass all of that, I look down a narrow driveway to the back corner of the home and it's always a sad goodbye to those that have departed, for I'll see a recliner that's no longer needed...a mattress...a dresser...a chair...a mirror--just left out by the dumpster because someone's time has come to an end and they've moved on.