Several years ago, a distraught student came to my office after making a trip to another state just south of us to pick up her mother. As the story unfolded, I learned that this student's mother had dementia and resided in a local nursing home. Let me interject that I do not consider dementia to be a funny thing. Back to the story.....
On a certain day of the week, bread was delivered to the nursing home where the student's mother lived. As it turned out, the lady was wandering around, looking for her purse while the bread man was going in and out of the building with his deliveries. When she saw the open door, she wandered out of the building in search of her purse. Again, I know that wandering is a part of dementia and is not a funny thing. Back to the story....
Still in search of the missing purse, the lady spotted another open door. You may have guessed that this door was in the back of the bread truck. So, she climbed in and sat down among the loaves of bread. Unaware of the passenger in the back of his truck, the bread man shut the door and headed on out to make his last delivery which was in South Carolina. Imagine his surprise when he opened the door and discovered this elderly lady perched in the back of his truck!
I am a very visual person. So, at this point in the story, I could feel the laughter welling up inside of me as I imagined some things about this scenario......the face of the delivery man as he opened that door when he got to his next stop.....the sight of this lady sitting in the back of the bread truck..... But, I dared not laugh while the student was relating this story to me as she was in a breathless, frustrated state. The delivery man knew that the lady must have climbed into his truck at the last stop. And, I am sure that the facility where she lived was in a mad search for her. So, he called to let them know about his passenger, and the facility notified the student of her mother's whereabouts. In the midst of her busy day, the student had made a trip to SC to pick up her mother.
As I mentioned, I did not laugh while the student was in my office. But, after she left, I laughed until I cried. As I worked with other students during the day, I would think of things like the lady "loafing" in the bread truck, or the bread delivery man finding an extra set of "buns" in the back of his truck, and I could hardly contain myself until I was alone again and could let that laughter out. It just bubbled up in me like a fountain at the most unexpected times.
I am thinking of the bread truck as a day. Even though we think we know what the day contains, we may find an unexpected delivery when we open the door. And, hopefully, we can find some joy and laughter in the journey.
Girrll...you are not right!
ReplyDelete