I have been working at a retirement home for about seven months now. I work Monday and Friday afternoons from 3:30-7:30 and every other weekend. Is it the most fun I have ever had? No. Am I utilizing my college degree? No. Do I feel like God has placed me exactly where he wants me to be? Yes. I love, love, love the men and women who reside at Park Village Pines. Some of them are losing it, but for the most part they are really together, wise people who love to chat it up. They are geniunely interested in my life. One women in particular, Fran has become particularly close to my heart. I pass her room as I am going back and forth to the dining room and I stop and chat with her. I have been doing this regularly now for about three months. Last week she told me that the past weekend was tough b/c it was the anniversary of her husband's death. They had been married for over 65 years! 65 YEARS PEOPLE!! Its hard for me to even wrap my head around that. I am in such awe of such devotion. I asked her the secret to a happy and long marriage and she said, "Have a sense of humor and forgive and forget!" AMEN to that!! She also told me that she had three sons, but one died when he was 22 hiking on the Appalachian trail. The way she spoke of her son's death and what it did to her and her marriage really moved me. I am blessed to know Fran and to hear and learn from her 88 years on this Earth. I feel honored that God has chosen me to be in these people's lives, even if its to serve them dinner. To make time,even just five minutes to stop in and chat, makes their endless days a little less dreary(her words not mine:)
Who knows how long I will be at this job..but I am grateful for God's blessings through it.
