Old but not Alone | Short Story of Human Love and Kindness by PK Becker | Inspiring Story #67

Photograph by:  Kenan Tekin

Evening at the Nursing Home.  I help Rika as she painfully pushes her steel framed walker back to her room. We make our way carefully across the dining room where, cleaning up after dinner, workers slosh water in soapy puddles.

We walk slowly past rooms whose doors are slightly ajar, revealing elderly residents in various stages of getting ready for bed. As she passes each door, Rika gives a small knock and wave.   With a tired but beaming smile, she announces her safe return from the terrors of the emergency room where she’d spent the past ten hours. 

We push on and make it to her room, where she lands softly on her bed, still smiling. Her roommate is being helped into her diaper and pajama pants.  Friends from other rooms, hurry in with arms outstretched, calling blessings for their friend’s safe return.

The love and excitement are uninhibited and real. A small round woman in pink sweatpants and sweatshirt, with a sleeping hat over her white hair bounces into the room joyfully calling, “You came home, you’re okay, thank G-d, thank G-d!” They had waited all day for word, reminding each other that ‘no news is good news’.

They’d made it through another winter day. They would sleep more peacefully knowing they were all accounted for.   Most of them had family members somewhere but here, every live-long day, they had each other and they were not alone.