Love Is Not Only For The Young

 I sat soul-fully in my wheel chair; not thinking about anything special when I noticed a person in a wheel chair at the door. The next time I saw him he was in closer view. I gestured an approval when he pretended to play a guitar.  I was unusually attracted to him.  He seemed so young to be in a nursing home.  I could not get my mind off of him.  He had the most penetrating eyes and so handsome.

The next day he was in his wheel chair at a table off to the corner of the dining room.  I could not resist approaching him. I introduced myself and reached out my hand, but it wasn’t a normal handshake.  We held on.   “I like you a lot”, and he said more,  but I couldn’t hear it all, so I said, “I am hard of hearing”.  I could be conversant, but I was never sure of his words.

One evening, after dinner, I found Rick by the refrigerator. He said, ”did you hear me call your name?”  We held hands and his smile was so winsome. 

The next day was his 67^th birthday and his sister and her husband came with balloons and cake. They motioned for me to come to their table where Rick was, so polite, always ready to share.  I liked the sister very much too.

Word was circulating that we were a couple.  The head nurse assured me that a relationship  was acceptable.  “Will the residents object and gossip” I asked?” 

“Just trust your judgment and be natural”, she said.  “Relationships do happen in senior homes.”

I went to his room early one evening.  He was in bed.  Rick’s sister told me he fell and broke his hip and was convalescing from the replacement surgery.  I pulled up alongside his bed and said, “I love you.   I can’t understand it but I do.”  Rick answered with, “I love you too!”  I stood up and leaned over the bed to kiss him. I couldn’t reach, so for three weeks we were ever trying in our wheel chairs, sometimes with great effort.

It was love, for love is ageless; when in older years.  How else could Rick at 67 love a 93 year old?  All the magic of youthful love was present for both of us.  One time Rick said, “I’ll put my arm up level with the arm chair and you can hold my arm.”

We were oblivious to the other residents. We would start out by holding hands, when the fervor of our passion would overtake us.  Because I was the only one who could stand, I would lean over his wheelchair and we would both try to connect on the lips.

It was usually on the forehead, and quite often the elegance of a kiss on the hand when all else failed.

One day I leaned over and placed a kiss on his cheek.  “I love you”, we both said.  The head nurse was behind me…..“Be careful Donna, you nearly tipped over.”  I had to kiss Rick, for I loved him as I had never loved anyone before.  It was so sudden, so spontaneous, and so mutual.  It was the most beautiful three weeks. 

Rick was taken to the hospital the next morning where he passed away at 2AM.

A nurse came in and told me in the morning. 

I have beautiful memories of a pre-Christmas three week romance of 2018; combined with ongoing moments of sadness.

Donna Bishop

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Published with permission of the author.