An Old Lady's Poem

When I was reading stories online, I came across this story entitled 'An Old Lady's Poem'. This story happened long time ago when an old lady, died in a geriatric ward of a small hospital in Dundee, Scotland. The nurse who came to pack her belongings, read this poem and it was soon copied and distributed to the rest of the nurses in the hospital. A nurse went to Ireland and took a copy with her. The old lady's sole possession-the poem soon appeared in Christmas edition of the News Magazine of the North. Here goes the poem...

AN OLD LADY'S POEM

What do you see, nurses, what do you see?
What are you thinking when you're looking at me?
A crabby old woman, not very wise,
Uncertain of habit, with faraway eyes?
Who dribbles her food and makes no reply""
Who seems not to notice the things that you do,
And forever is losing a stocking or shoe....
Who, resisting or not, lets you do as you will,
With bathing and feeding, the long day to fill....
Then open your eyes, nurse; you're not looking at me.
I'll tell you who I am as I sit here so still,
As I do at your bidding, as I eat at your will.
I'm a small child of ten...with a father ! and mother,
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 promised to keep.
At twenty-five now, I have young of my own,
Who need me to guide and a secure happy home.
A woman of thirty, my young now grown fast,
Bound to each other with ties that should last.
At forty, my young sons have grown and are 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 are 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 now an old woman....and nature is cruel;
Tis jest to make old age look like a fool.
The body, it crumbles, grace and vigor depart,
There is now a stone where I once 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 loving and living life over again.
I think of the years....all too few, gone too 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!!





A typical story that happens to most of the elderly people in their golden age. When you think that the old folks are not listening to you or have lost their senses, think again...they still feel and always reminisced the past. If you have noticed, the old lady also said in the poem that she did not get nice treatments from the nurses...nurses thought of her as an old hag and demanded her to eat and did at their will. A common treatment in the old folks home. Never abandon your parents in this way.
It is a great poem to me.