When an elderly lady died in the geriatric ward of a hospital near Dundee, Scotland, it appeared she had left nothing of any value. Then a nurse going through her things came upon this poem. The quality of this work so impressed the staff that copies were made and distributed to the staff. When one of the nurses moved to nurse geriatric patients in Braid Valley Hospital, she took her copy of the poem along with her. The womans poem has since appeared in a Christmas edition of Beacon House News Magazine of the North Ireland Association for Mental Health. I think that her poem reminds us to look past the mind and the body and consider what is going on in an elderly persons heart. If anyone has the name of the woman who wrote this poem, please send it to me so that I can give her the proper credit. Little did she know that her words would be printed for so many to see. Surely, she is somewhere up in heaven looking down and smiling.
Then open your eyes nurses, you're not looking at me.
I'll tell you who I am as I sit here so still.
As I move at your bidding, as I eat at your will.
I'm a small child of ten with a mother and father,
Brothers and sisters who love one another.
A young girl of sixteen with wings on her feet,
Dreaming that soon now a lover she'll meet.
A bride soon at twenty, my heart gives a leap,
Remembering the vows that I've promised to keep.
At twenty-five now I have young of my own,
Who need me to build a secure happy home.
A woman of thirty my young now grow fast,
Bound to each other with ties that should last.
At forty my young ones are grown and have gone,
But my man's beside me to see I don't mourn.
At fifty once more babies play around my knee,
Again we know children, my loved one and me.
Dark days upon me, my husband is 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 an old woman now and nature is cruel,
Tis her jest to make old age look like a fool.
The body it crumbles, grace and vigor depart,
There is stone now where once I had a heart.
But inside this old carcass a young girl still dwells,
And now and again my battered heart swells.
I remember the joys, I remember the pain,
And I'm living and loving life over again.
I think of the years all too few gone fast,
And accept the stark fact that nothing can last.
So open your eyes, nurses, open and see,
Not a crabby old woman, look closer
SEE ME!
Author: Name Unknown
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