BABES IN ARMS

NOTHING ENLIVENS the elderly amongst us like a visit from a young person. Two young women on the dining room staff have taken maternity leave in the past year and another has stopped working long enough to increase her family. 

Happily, after a period of bonding, the mamas have returned to continue taking care of the residents here at the Manor. On a day off, they sometimes bring their babies to meet us and it certainly activates our circulation as we reach out to touch youth once again. Diana, a dining room hostess, recently brought Isabel to see us as we enjoyed wine and cheese on the patio one Friday early evening.

Another day, Daffodale and her husband paid a visit with young Wyatt who was sporting 8 teeth before his first birthday.






I couldn't decide which of these shots to share, so you're privy to seeing both as our chaplain enjoys a face-to-face with Isabel in the Tea Room.

"I brought children into this dark world because 

it needed the light that only a child can bring."  

                                                                   ~Liz Armbruster

BABIES

Where did you come from, baby dear?

Out of the Everywhere and into here.

~George MacDonald, 

"At the Back of the North Wind"

Mr. Bob and I are great-grandparents with little chance of ever seeing our granddaughter, Asher. For one thing, she resides in Alaska and for another, the mother and father are estranged and although our grandson, Ryan, is trying to gain custody, it seems  that the courts usually favor the child being with the mother. For most of her first year, pictures were coming through and we had to be content to marvel and ooh and aah from afar.

Have you noticed how events seem to come in clusters? All of a sudden we get a rash of wedding announcements or more somber, we have a lot of funerals and memorials to attend in quick succession. It seems to be that way currently with babies in our world. Two of the servers in the dining room at the Manor took maternity leave and I've met one of the little ones. Wyatt came to visit and his Mama asked, "Would you like to hold him?" 

Well, yes, indeed I would. What a pleasure it is to hold a baby close, feeling the heft and warmth of a new little being and marveling at what lies ahead......all the opportunities and discoveries and wonders to come. What a privilege it was the day he came to visit.

Isabel came to see the residents one day, also. There's no question but that people our age revel in being around new life. Our own babies were born with no hair whatsoever, so it's a treat to see babies who only have to work on growing teeth, never mind getting hair to emerge.

Remember a while back when I posted this photo of new grandparents? We were lucky enough to meet young William James last Friday. He slept right through our meeting, reminding me that somewhere long ago I read the statement that there was never a child so wonderful that his mother wasn't happy to see him asleep. Here is little William, another miracle of the Universe:

"A baby is God's opinion that the world should go on."  ~Carl Sandburg