Connie wanted me to thank you for your help in getting her a new recliner lift, she appreciates it and is excited to get it sometime next week.

Our visits are different these days, Connie is exhausted and my sense is she needs to see Red, not have long conversations with me. I try not to ask her about her health or medical condition, she gets to talk about that all day long. Right now, what she needs is to couch Red and rub his back, it is therapeutic and comforting to her.

I told  her about the chair and saw she was pleased, and then left Red and went to teach my Poetry Workshop in the Activity Room. We are working on a poem about being older, it is  very powerful for me as a teacher.

Red and Connie are old friends by now, he is always eager to see her and stands quietly by as she rubs his back and talks to him. There are times when she needs to talk to me, and times when she doesn’t, and it is my job to know the difference.

Her gratitude for the chair is very real. At this point, she is not able to read or knit, she is just trying to take care of herself. Red’s visits mean a lot to her.