Amazing People..

The best part of being here are the residents who live here. People from all walks of life who are here because they are in their senior years and need a helping hand. One of the ladies that I have wanted to meet (because I saw her write up in the Care newsletter before we left home) asked me yesterday to read to her from a paper someone had written. She is legally blind but is able to write in really big print and is creating bios on the residents for the upcoming newletters. We talked at length about her life. She grew up in the south in poverty. One of many children in the family she didn't ever think she would go to college although she wanted to go. She worked at a job and set aside .40 a week and put it into an account so that she could save for college. When she had $50 set aside (an amount of money unheard of for any of her family members to ever accumulate)she let it slip to her mother that she had the money and her mother told her she would never go to college. She withdrew the money and spent it on clothes.It wasn't until she had been out of school 14 years (she went to school in a one room school house with her two brothers and two cousins) that she got the opportunity to go to college. She married a man who also desired an education and was given a chance to get his degree...he then helped her get hers. She went on to get two masters degrees and her doctorate. She is an amazing woman who has three books which have been published and three more awaiting publication. Her book, "Growing up Aint Easy" is the one that I think I want to buy to read about her life growing up in the south and how she overcame poverty to get her education. Years ago she was also an avid hiker and backpacker and hiked the length of the Blue Ridge Parkway.
The gentleman who wrote the paper that I read to this woman (for her to write down and edit for the newsletter) is also highly educated. He has a PHD in geology and has been around the world twice lecturing and studying rocks. I have not had the opportunity to meet him yet but hope to do so. All of the residents have a story to tell and they love to talk about what they have done in their lives...they just want someone to listen.They have all lived such full lives and seen many things, while traveling in their RV's. What an adventure !Sunday is Grandparents Day...have you told a senior person, whom you admire, how much they mean to you ?
Today is Linda's (Baldassari) birthday but I promised her I wouldn't tell anyone here as they would sing to her and she'd kill me. It is also my daughter's birthday...two of my most favorite women share the same birthday...