We all have lived long enough to know the elderly but we forget that they too were young.....this says it so well..... 

When an old lady died in the geriatric ward of a small hospital near Dundee, Scotland, it was believed that she had nothing left of any value. Later, when the nurses were going through her meager possessions, they found this poem. Its quality and content so impressed the staff that copies were made and distributed to every nurse in the hospital. 

One nurse took her copy to Ireland. The old lady's sole bequest to posterity has since appeared in the Christmas edition of the News Magazine of the North 
Ireland Association. for Mental Health. 

A slide presentation has also been made based on her simple, but eloquent poem. 

And this little old Scottish lady, with nothing left to give to the world, is now the author of this "anonymous" poem winging across the Internet: 



What do you see, nurses? 

What do you see? 

What are you thinking 

When you're looking at me? 

A crabby old woman, 

Not very wise, 

Uncertain of habit, 

With faraway eyes. 


Who dribbles her food, 

And makes no reply, 

When you say in a loud voice, 

"I do wish you'd try!" 

Who seems not to notice, 

The things that you do, 

And forever is losing, 

A stocking or shoe 

Who, resisting or not 

Lets you do, as you will, 

With bathing and feeding, 

The long day to fill? 


Is that what you're thinking? 

Is that what you see? 

Then open your eyes, nurse, 

You're not looking at me. 

I'll tell you who I am, 

As I sit here so still, 

As I do at your bidding, 

As I eat at your will. 


I'm a small child of ten, 

With a father and mother, 

Brothers and sisters, 

Who love one another. 

A young girl of sixteen, 

With wings on her feet, 

Dreaming that soon now, 

A lover she'll meet. 


A bride soon at twenty, 

My heart gives a leap, 

Remembering the vows 

That I promised to keep. 


At twenty-five now, 

I have young of my own, 

Who need me to guide, 

And a secure happy home.

A woman of thirty, 

My young now grown fast, 

Bound to each other, 

With ties that should last. 

At forty, my young sons, 

Have grown and are gone, 

But my man's beside me, 

To see I don't mourn. 

At fifty once more, 

Babies play round my knee

Again we know children, 

My loved one and me.

Dark days are upon me, 

My husband is dead, 

I look at the future 

I shudder with dread. 


For my young are all rearing, 

Young of their own, 

And I think of the years, 

And the love that I've known. 


I'm now an old woman, 

And nature is cruel, 

Tis jest to make old age, 

Look like a fool. 


The body, it crumbles, 

Grace and vigor depart, 

There is now a stone 

Where I once had a heart. 

But inside this old carcass, 

A young girl still dwells, 

And now and again, 

My battered heart swells. 


I remember the joys, 

I remember the pain, 

And I'm loving and 

Living Life over again. 

I think of the years, 

All too few, gone too fast, 

And accept the stark fact 

That nothing can last. 

So open your eyes, people, 

Open and see, 

Not a crabby old woman; 
Look closer - see ME!! 

 

Courtesy Of:  Kroger770@aol.com