Christmas and how "not" to feel!

So today was a beautiful day and so I got over the "grumps" and the pain in my left leg didn't just keep shooting up my leg. I got to thinking about Christmas and how close it is! It seems like this whole year has gone by in a wink! I remember thinking a year ago, almost to the day that I was going to be in that Convalescent home the rest of my life and I didn't feel too kindly towards anyone, especially the people there that really annoyed me like "Lila".Would I have to put up with her whining and crying day and half the night for just a moment of attention, for another month or so? Or could I get "sprung" (my word!) I didn't think I should have been there in the first place! But thanks to a certain "doctor" I had to undergo therapy for about a month and then could get out! The one month turned into two because I had another relapse with the Virtigo. No fun but I began to feel like there was no tomorrow. I sat in my room or watched T.V. (what I could get at that Hospital!) and of course there was the cold breakfasts, the rubbery eggs, or the huge bowl of oatmeal, or the piece of cold toast with nothing on it, the extra strong cold coffee, and I could go on and on!!! But as the people who were running the place started to talk about maybe I would be able to leave, or, on the other hand, how they could talk me into staying in one of their "assisted living" apts.I thought, I'm going to get out of here, if I have to pretend that I'm crazy or some other thing. And then I started to talk to some of the other "guests"! Some of them were alright mind-wise but couldn't walk, or eat, (without being fed) and all the other things that to me were so much worse off than me! One fellow, (pretty young) was across the hall from me and had been there twenty years! He was in a chair that he had to propel with his mouth! He couldn't walk or use his arms and here I was an 89 year old woman and griping! Mark was his name and he had more people in the establishment "visiting" him than anyone else in the building! I had to find out why!!! He had to be changed, fed, someone had to brush his teeth, wash him, dress him and all the "little " million and one things that one has to do in a day! But, and I say "BUT" he was always cheerful and outgoing and would drive himself all over the hospital, stopping to talk to this one or that one!!! I don't know what happened to him that he was in the position he was in but he had accepted it!!! I started to talk to him and he asked me if I played Bingo, I told him that I didn't do anything but watch T.V. so he said you ought to come down and play Bingo. You'd have fun! So I was sitting in the lobby one day and heard them playing Bingo in the recreation room and so I wandered in and someone asked me if I wanted to play Bingo. I thought, "why not?" So I was asked to sit in a chair at one of the tables and that was the start of my second month in the Hospital. I really had a ball! And Mark, even if he couldn't do the playing himself, always had some one to put the checkers on the cards for him! When he would win he would laugh so hearty!!! So I also got acquainted with the other two players at "my" table and started to enjoy myself! I won two or three games every time I played. Just the way the dice rolled! My two new friends were a woman in a wheel chair who had had bad knees and couldn't walk and the guy was in dialysis! He would go two or three times a week to the Dr. Really nice guy and so helpful to point out a play or two for me! The woman I found out was the sister to one of the people at St. Anne"s who had worked there for years and I knew her but not her sister!There were two or three other people there too that I found out had some relative or friend that I knew. So, I got out of my "dungeon" and started to take walks all around the Hospital! Of course, there was the poor souls who didn't talk or even wake up when I walked around! I got the exercise I needed and also could have someone to talk to and visit with, even if we were both walking with a cane or a walker. And I found that some of the people there who "weren't with it" as the story goes had some amazing talents!!! One lady from the Philipines played the piano so beautifully. She told me her sister had taught her and that her sister was a music teacher in the Philipines.The next day when I met her she just stared at me when I tried to talk to her.Another old guy was walking around and around all the time. So one day in the recreation room they had singing, music,etc. (and some of the help who thought they could sing and dance) anyway, while this old guy was walking through the rec room some piece of music stirred his brain and he went over to one of the girls (the help) and could he dance!!!! Everyone in the room who was just sitting there watching, started clapping and when the music ended, he, the old guy, went back to his cane and out the door without saying anything!!! Another guy picked up a guitar in the rec room and really began to play music that was modern, etc. but when he had his "moment of glory" he walked out and probably at that moment forgot that he could ever play a guitar!!!I never "want" to go to a Convalescent home but if the day comes when I "have" to, I hope that I could make it as pleasant as some of them (unknowingly)did!!!! Goodnight, and good grief! I haven't had my dinner yet!