Linda

Linda was living in a nursing home after a stroke took the use of the right side of her body. Her daughter, Tina, didn’t think they were taking very good care of her, so she moved Linda into her home. They live about ten minutes from me.

When I pulled into the driveway for our interview, I could hear the goats bleating.

Linda met me at the door.

“I want to show you my room,” she said after I shut the door behind me.

Linda’s room is very cozy and inviting. She's surrounded by memories and many things she loves.

“That was my dad’s,” she pointed to a cedar cabinet adorned with photos.

On nearly every surface photos were attached.

“I like to look at them before I go to sleep at night.”

Even Linda’s bed is covered with photos in the form of a photo blanket.

“I just love it,” she told me and went on to tell me who the people in the pictures are.

“Who’s this lady here?” I asked.

“That’s my grandma. Grandma Mable.”

“And the couple on the other side?”

“That’s my grandparents on the other side of the family,” Linda said.

“Where were you the happiest?”

Linda became thoughtful.

“When I was with Grandma Mable. She lived across the road from us and I’d go over there a lot. Once I asked her, ‘Grandma, how come Mom doesn’t play with me like you do?’ She said, ‘Because moms are too busy.’” Linda laughed. “Boy, she was right!”

She told me about meeting her first husband. “I was fifteen and we were at the skating rink. He came right up and kissed me! I was shocked! I didn’t know what kissing was!” I could see the look of incredulity on her face as she relived the memory. She ended up marrying this guy only to have him start abusing her a month after they were married.

I didn’t pry. I let Linda tell me what she wanted to tell me.

She stayed in the marriage for ten years.

Then she lived in her car for about a month with her three girls.

Linda divorced and went on to marry again and had another daughter and a son.

Linda likes to clean and cleaned for a living. Even now, she helps Tina out as much as she’s able.

“I can scrub the shower walls after I finish my shower,” she told me. “At least as high up as I can reach.”

A cat wandered in.

“That’s Ups,” Linda said. “One day, the UPS guy pulled in and she got out of the truck. ‘Don’t worry, she’ll get back in when I get ready to leave. She always does,’ he said. But she didn’t! She stayed here!”

I took it from our conversation that Linda isn’t much of a cat person because she said, “I’ve learned to get along with them.” There's at least one more inside and one outside. “If you put your hand under their chin, then you can pet them.”

Besides her bedroom, Linda has her space in the living room. She has a desk, shelves, and a recliner.

“See that book there?” she asked.

“This one?” I asked picking up a small photo album.

“That’s when I had the strep.”

“How did you get strep?” I wondered.

“No one knows! I didn’t have any cuts on me. But I was cleaning at the time and they think maybe I got it into my mouth because it started in my jaw. It hurt so bad! My son-in-law took me to the emergency room, but they thought it was a bad tooth. They gave me something for it and sent me home! I was living downstairs at the time. Then, later that night when they checked on me, I was unconscious! I woke up in the hospital.”

Because of the strep, Linda lost an eye and she showed me all the terrible scars on her arms.

And the before and after pictures of the back of her hand...

They did an amazing job.

You would think with wounds like that, that there would be a lot of pain.

“I didn’t have any pain! They couldn’t believe it!”

Despite everything Linda has been through, she’s the sweetest woman you could ever hope to meet.

“How do you stay so positive?”

“Jesus.”

Such a simple answer with a big meaning. Her faith has carried her through some of toughest trials in her life and she came out on the other side without being bitter.

“Do you have a favorite song?” I asked.

After thinking about it for maybe a heartbeat, she started singing. Quietly at first, then when she saw I was enjoying her song, stronger.

“♪He walks with me, and He talks with me, and He tells me I am His own♫.” She knew all the words and sang the whole song to me.

“Do you have any advice you could give us?” I asked.

She didn’t have to think about that.

“Keep your mouth shut! No one wants to hear what old people have to say. They tell me I talk too much!”

Old people are a wealth of information and memories and should be treasured, not made to feel like they don’t want to be heard from.