We walked into the retirement home and down the narrow hall. My six year old daughter Sara was with me.
"Mom, it smells funny in here...How long are we going to stay?
Are we gonna eat cake!?...Do you think Aunt Matty will like the princess crown I made her? If she doesn't like it, can I keep it?..." She smiled.
There was a birthday party for Aunt Matty. And the staff prepared a big pink cake and all the seniors wore their nice clothes. They looked cute in there suits and ties and fancy dresses with pearls. Everyone was happy to have visitors and a party to dress up for. They all beamed at my little girl and said how cute she was. Of course she loved the attention. She even did her little dance and sang a song for them.
We gave my aunt the glittering princess crown. She loved it and wore it all day. Sara sat next to her and they exchanged excited looks as two plates of cake were placed before them. "Hey, your piece is bigger than mine, but I think it's because it's your birthday" she said. "When it's my birthday I'm gonna get the biggest piece." She did a little happy dance as she dug into the awesome pink birthday cake.
My daughter innocently asked, "How old are you now? Are you a hundred years old yet?" I quickly stopped her, "Honey, you're not supposed to ask people how old they are."
Matty's actually about 78 years old now. I remember my aunt being a professional dancer, talented and bright. But as she's gotten older we watched her mentally slipping backwards. Almost like a child like state. She's sort of in this world and out of this world at the same time. And her hobby is counting pennies and she's got jars of them in her room.
We want to take care of her, so that's why we decided to have Matty come live at our house. It was actually little Sara's idea. One day she asked me, "Why is Aunt Matty way over there away from our family. I want her to come live with us and stay in my room and we can have bunk beds."
Well we didn't get the bunk beds but within two weeks Matty was a new addition to our little home. We made her a room down at the end of the hall. She's got her jars of pennies and some barbies that my daughter gave her.
Now she enjoys spending her days coloring in books with Sara. They've made a little tea party tent in Sara's room. I was invited along with all the stuffed animals and barbies for a lovely little tea yesterday.
Sara says, "Aunt Matty is my friend and I'm happy she came to live with us. Now she will be happy and she can play with me all the time."
It's like having two kids instead of one now. But it's so nice to see them bonding and having our family together.