the befriending of an old lady

I have always liked old people. I love the song by Neil Young Old Man take a look at my life and being a song writer I tried to emulate it with a song in ode to old women but somehow it just wasn't the same. In fact it was crap. When I was about fourteen and fairly melancholy I wrote a poem about old people which in fact was very fatalistic and patronising, but hey my heart was in the right place!
it started 'walking along with their face to the ground smoking their last cigarette'
      then (i can't remember) da da da da da da da da da da da..their lives they so dearly regret'

anyway it wasn't the most promising poem but it came after I was sitting on a bus watching two old folk, a couple I believe, doing just that- they were probably about thirty, ha ha.

any ways, I had an old great aunty who is dead now, god rest her soul,  who I used to hang out with.
I would go and eat with her and watch TV, and go shopping- before she got too old.
she would tell me loads of stories. and I would listen.
when I was about fourteen, I remember her telling me how long it had been since her husband died and how she missed him. I think she may have shed a very uncommon tear.
I remember massaging her shoulders and feeling at once embarrassed and also happy as she found the massage so nice. what could I do? Touch is powerful.

I, being brought up to believe so, would, when we talked of death, affirm the the true existence of heaven- with a belief as resolute as that of my dads- a devout believer in the scientific and metaphysical ability beyond space and time for heaven to exist- beyond our little comprehension, and she would almost bitterly call me a romantic-rose-tinted-spectacle person etc etc.
but I so wanted to make a heaven for her that she could look forward to.
it was odd at the end how her waking hours were spent talking and almost calling for the young version of her sister and imagining the hills where they walked and played. it was very ghostly and Heathcliffe and Cathyesque.

any way I did digress.
thing is, I have decided this year almost without realising it, to resolve to visit at least once a week, an elderly -non blood- relative- to help with shopping, cleaning, sorting things out, talking etc. befriending.


on the third or fourth visit, today, she mentioned she was soon to visit the chiropodist. I promised her a reflexology treatment after this. for obvious reasons. however, I sort of could sense she'd love a foot rub there and then. so I did. and as reflexology is very good at doing, it created an opportunity for her to relax, be comforted and to talk a little about stuff inside.

very good I thought.