Here's to the Crabby Old Men in My Life

Here's to the Crabby Old Men in My Life ( A Legacy Reflection)

I do not begin to take credit for this literary piece. It is an email in wide circulation but believe me when I tell you that more than forty years in the health care field validates for me that this is a truism that people should recognize and benefit from. For that reason, I have included it in my legacy collection.

In the days I worked as a nurse's aide, before becoming a nurse, I remember well a couple that I met. He was in a nursing home and was a large man with coarse features and wild grey hair. His wife was a beautiful white haired lady with her hair meticulously drawn back in a bun at the nape of her neck. She visited him daily.

He had been the Superintendent of Schools who was a highly educated man and very scholarly. A stroke had blind sided him and made him incapable of articulate conversation and his mind wandered in worlds known only to him. He was very gentle and easy to direct when giving his cares. He had a loving nature that had survived the stroke and everyone loved caring for him.

One day above his bed appeared a neatly hand made poster with a picture of him as a distinguished educator. These words accompanied the picture. "Mr. Rath is a very dignified man who has earned the respect of his friends and his peers. Please do not baby talk to him as it demeans who he has been his whole life." I never forgot that lesson and I tried to teach it to all others I encountered in the health field as a nurse and caregivers.

Please now read and learn from;

Crabby Old Man

When an old man died in the geriatric ward of a small hospital near
Tampa, Florida, it was believed that he had nothing left of any value
Later, when the nurses were going through his meager possessions, they
found this poem. Its quality and content so impressed the staff that
copies were made and distributed to every nurse in the hospital. One
nurse took her copy to Missouri. The old man's sole bequest to
posterity has since appeared in the Christmas edition of the News
Magazine of the St. Louis Association for Mental Health. A slide
presentation has also been made based on his simple, but eloquent,
poem.

And this little old man, with nothing left to give to the world, is now
the author of this "anonymous" poem winging across the Internet.

Crabby Old Man

What do you see nurses? ......What do you see?
What are you thinking......when you're looking at me?
A crabby old man, ....not very wise,
Uncertain of habit .......with faraway eyes?

Who dribbles his food......and makes no reply.
When you say in a loud voice....."I do wish you'd try!"
Who seems not to notice ....the things that you do.
And forever is losing .............. a sock or shoe?

Who, resisting or not...........lets you do as you will,
With bathing and feeding ....... the long day to fill?
Is that what you're thinking? Is that what you see?
Then open your eyes, nurse......you're not looking at me.

I'll tell you who I am ...... as I sit here so still,
As I do at your bidding, .......as I eat at your will.
I'm a small child of Ten......with a father and mother,
Brothers and sisters .......who love one another

A young boy of Sixteen ...........with wings on his feet
Dreaming that soon now. ........a lover he'll meet.
A groom soon at Twenty .........my heart gives a leap.
Remembering, the vows........that I promised to keep.

At Twenty-Five, now .......... I have young of my own.
Who need me to guide ........ and a secure happy home.
A man of Thirty ........ my young now grown fast,
Bound to each other ......... with ties that should last.

At Forty, my young sons ........have grown and are gone,
But my woman's beside me........to see I don't mourn.
At Fifty, once more, .......... babies play 'round my knee,
Again, we know children ......... my loved one and me.

Dark days are upon me .......... my wife is now dead.
I look at the future ...........I shudder with dread.
For my young are all rearing ........young of their own.
And I think of the years...... and the love that I've known.

I'm now an old man.........and nature is cruel.
Tis jest to make old age ......look like a fool.
The body, it crumbles..........grace and vigor, depart.
There is now a stone........where I once had a heart.

But inside this old carcass ...... a young guy still dwells,
And now and again .........my battered heart swells.
I remember the joys.............. I remember the pain.
And I'm loving and living.......... .life over again.

I think of the years ...all too few......gone too fast.
And accept the stark fact........that nothing can last.
So open your eyes, people ..........open and see..
Not a crabby old man. Look closer....see........ME!!

Remember this poem when you next meet an older person who you might
brush aside without looking at the young soul within.....we will all, one day, be there, too!

May we all look not at the crabby old man, but at his legacy.