Day One
Day Two
Day Three
Day Four
Day Five
Day Six
Day Seven
Day Eight, Monday
Morgan woke up, the sun streaming in across her walls.
Scenes from the visit the day before at the Sunnyside Home floated across her
mind.
They had walked the hall, making a circle around the entire
building. Most of the rooms were private, spacious. Clarisse wanted to think of
them as family, at home.
The people’s rooms faced to the outside of the building, all
with windows. The center of the building held offices, kitchen, storage, and
the large dining room, also used for activities. Big windows opened on to the
hall, to allow for visibility. Off the dining room, through large sliding glass
doors, was an inner courtyard with a patio. It was concrete, with scattered
beds of flowers and a small tree. Wind chimes were hung from the eaves, and
several colorfully bright and cheerful wind whirly-gigs were placed around in the plants.Wheelchairs could easily be placed there, and a scattering
of chairs and small tables were pleasantly arranged. She was impressed with the
efforts made to make everything pretty and comfortable.
As they walked by the dining room, a church group sang for
the people sitting there. Several
guitars, a flute played by a teen girl, and six voices, together. Morgan
guessed there were about twenty listening to them, most of them attentive, a
few singing along. They listened, absorbing the music. She and Clarisse walked
on past.
Clarisse showed her the kitchen and her office, which had a
window looking out on to the inner patio. She told her, “Now that you know your
way around, I would like to introduce you to two of the ladies here. Gertrude
and Marie. Marie is in room one hundred two. We’ll go there first.”
“Marie, I have someone here to see you. This is Morgan.
Morgan, meet Marie. Marie is blind, but she always helps us see how happy life
is.” She emphasized the “see.”
Morgan reached out and held Marie’s hand. “Glad to meet you,
Marie. You are wearing a pretty pink blouse.”
“Thank you,” she answered in her scratchy voice. “My
daughter brings me tops that are pretty colors. She knows I like to know what
color I wear each day, so I can picture it in my mind. They tell me about the
flowers in the garden, too, what is blooming. I like that.”
“Did they tell you about the beautiful golden yellow
sunflowers at the front desk? They have a huge bouquet up there.”
“Sunflowers. Oh, I remember the fields in Kansas. Miles of
them. Sunflowers as far as you could see. In the morning, they would all face
east, and by the afternoon, they would turn with the sun and face west. Funny,
how they would do that.”
“Did you live in Kansas?”
“No, I’m from the east coast, New Jersey. But we would drive
across the country to visit family we had in the west. It was a long drive, all
the way across. Days of driving. There was always so much to see. Back when I
could see. Wheat fields. Corn. But I loved the fields of sunflowers, when we
drove past those.”
They talked a few more minutes. Clarisse told her they were
going to visit Gertrude. “Tell her hello from me. Nice to meet you, Morgan.
Please come back again, we can talk some more another time.”
Morgan hesitated, with her answer, but took Marie’s hand
again. “Marie, I will come back to talk, again. I will bring you some flowers
from my garden, some roses that smell pretty.”
“Oh my, thank you, you are very sweet. Please do come, don’t
just say you will come, then don’t. I do want you to come.”
“I will, I promise,” said Morgan.
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