I shot this photograph of a chair aerobics class at The Senior Center in my town. I was there to get some photographs to post on their website.
I took it right after listening to Garrison Keillor’s five minute radio broadcast, “The Writer’s Almanac” which each day features a poem. The poem for this day was by Mary Olivier from a volume of poems titled, “Thirst”. The name of the poem is:
The Place I Want to Get Back To
is where
in the pinewoods
in the moments between
the darkness
and first light
two deer
came walking down the hill
and when they saw me
they said to each other, okay,
this one is okay,
let’s see who she is
and why she is sitting
on the ground, like that,
so quiet, as if
asleep, or in a dream,
but, anyway, harmless;
and so they come
on their slender legs
and gazed upon me
not unlike the way
I go out to the dunes and look
and look and look
into the faces of the flowers;
and then one of them leaned forward
and nuzzled my hand, and what can my life
bring me that could exceed
that brief moment?
For twenty years
I have gone every day to the same woods,
not waiting, exactly, just lingering.
Such gifts, bestowed,
can’t be repeated.
If you want to talk about this
come to visit. I live in the house
near the corner, which I have named
Gratitude.
~ Mary Oliver ~
When I got home and looked at this particular image from the Senior Center, I paused. Looked away. My throat seized up with emotion that came almost instantly.
The hands reminded me of my mother and of my father and, really, so many elders lining corridors that I passed through on the way to their rooms.
Their hands were always reaching out for help, for someone to stop and take notice, and joy of joy, for someone to touch them, hug them and listen to them.
Sometimes, on blessed days, I could help my mother and my father, but not all, and I fear there were far too many un-blessed days looking back, but when the stars and planets and illness aligned, I felt as Mary Oliver did when she remembers the deer nuzzling her hand.
“Such gifts bestowed cannot be repeated”.
Caregiving can break your heart and be the gift of a lifetime at the same time.
©Pat Coakley 2009
PHOTOGRAPHY CANNOT BE USED WITHOUT WRITTEN PERMISSION
