The Queen........

How did I get my title you may wonder..... Well it was given to me a few years ago by one of my clients. She likes to be known as “ The Queen” because she shares the name of a famous one. For the last few years or so I have been working with a lot of senior citizens, many of whom have Alzheimers or Dementia. Some of them can be quite challenging, occasionally accusing me of trying to drown or murder them, and others are more entertaining. After working in this setting I tell people that my goal in life is to live well each day, make lots of good memories so that if something like this happens to me I have good ones to hold on to and relive often, and to treat people well, in hopes that when I am old I will be treated well in return.

It's Thursday, and “The Queen” is coming for her weekly appointment. “Hello” I say to her. She looks up and says “Do I know you?”. I tell her yes and that I have been doing her hair for a few years now. As soon as she sees the chair she says “ Well, of course I know who you are .... You're the Lady with the red chair! How are those little boys of yours?” I tell her they are doing well, but not so little anymore. She asks me what are we going to do to her hair today? I let her know that she's due for a color and a set and ask if she feels up to it. “Well of course I do, I don't want to be looking shabby” she says. Another lady is sitting under the dryer and proceeds to tell “The Queen” that she doesn't think she ought to color her hair...That she thinks she should leave it natural, which would be snowy white. This does not go over well with “The Queen” and she politely says that she must color her hair after all she doesn't want to look like an old lady!! A little while later she asks again how my children are and announces that she thinks she is to old to have anymore. I ask her how old she is.... her reply is “Well now, I must be at least 60 or so. You tell me I was born in 1918”. I smile and get out the calculator so she can see me type in the numbers. I say “ the year is 2011...take that and minus the year 1918 and what do you get? 93.” She almost jumps out of her chair with surprise “93, I am 93!!!!” “Well then I am definitely to old to have anymore children!!” I tell her to look on the bright side- that she feels 30 years younger than she actually is!

She is a wonderful lady and makes many of us smile. The blonde lady, the tall man who fixes things, the bingo lady, the lady who plays the piano....We all have our titles from her.....It makes you wonder, what she would name you?