Many of the women I have looked after in my career as a carer, including the lady who was an opera singer but I looked after in the very last stages of her dementia. The lady who is 101 1/2 that I look after now. She is amazing though becoming more poorly.
The lady who wrote this...............
What do you see, Nurses, what do you see?
What do you see when you are looking at me?
A crabbit old woman, not very wise,
Uncertain of habit, with far away 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 unresisting 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 move 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 at 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 build a secure happy home;
A woman of thirty, my young now grow fast,
Bound to each other with ties that should last,
At forty, my young sons now grown, will be gone,
But my man stays beside me to see I don't mourn;
At fifty once more babies play around my knee,
Once more we know children, my loved one and me.
Dark days are upon me, my husband is dead;
I look to the future, I shudder with dread.
My young are all busy rearing young of their own.
And I think of the years and the love that I've known.
I'm an old woman and nature is cruel,
'Tis her jest to make old age look like a fool.
The body, it crumbles, grace and vigour depart.
There is now a stone, where there once was a heart.
But inside this old body 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 all over again.
And I think of the years all too few-gone too fast
And accept the stark fact that nothing will last.
So open your eyes, nurse, open and see
Not a crabbit old woman, look closer- SEE ME.
It was found in her locker after her death.
I never met her, was told about this when I first started care work!