Jerry’s wheelchair serves many purposes. He paints or draws every day. No matter where he is. I was following him down the hall yesterday and saw this sight…art supplies sticking out of a makeshift backpack. He paints in the dining room while waiting for lunch. He paints in his room. He paints in the back lounge. He cannot express himself in words many times that can be understood. We all know him through his art. He has alot to say.
Bob is 86 and lives alone. He has set up a mini-studio with thousands of old records and tapes. He studies the origins of the songs and the composers. I asked him to come into an Alzheimer’s unit where I was volunteering and share his music. The first time, he tried to make it like a polished performance. The next time he sat down with everyone and just played music and they all enjoyed it together….no performance…just enjoyment. He became a regular, and got many requests for certain songs from different eras. He spends hours at home putting songs together that people are asking for. It has been 2 years of fun for everyone and continues on, now visiting 3 nursing homes. “I think I have as much fun or more fun than they do.” He smiles. He wishes he could do more but he can’t get around like he used to do.
Vicky is in our nursing center short term rehabilitation. She is not able to get out to be with her family in the loss of her brother. She wrote a poem for him and wanted to learn how to do calligraphy so she could make it very personal from her own hand. Here she is practicing. After she finished her poem, which was beautiful, we framed it so it could be displayed at the memorial service.
“I wanted to do something special in honor of my brother,” she said.
Bingo is a game with squares and numbers. Markers are usually round and flat. Is there a creative side to Bingo? I walked through the Bingo area today and saw these Bingo cards. Someone ran out of markers and decided to be innovative with something more fun and more colorful. Art is overflowing into all areas of our nursing center.
David, one of our residents, thinks in great detail, but paints very loose and free and with emotion. He is constantly asking to see a picture of a particular kind of butterfly, or flower, or bird. I have been taking my laptop in so I can be ready with a ton of pictures available on the internet. After he gets a good look, he paints his abstract version of how he sees it.
Today he told me he wanted to draw a child’s face. He had just spent some time with a little red-headed boy who had come to visit. He was so excited. He said that he had the perfect face to draw. The little boy had left and he needed to remember what he looked like. I just happened to have this little guy’s picture on facebook. We sat down side by side in front of the computer. Each of us drew a rendition of the cute little face.