LISTEN......

Peep Realtor wore many hats.  He was a long time resident of Elko.  Had a very loving and supportive family.  That was an advantage for me.  I had been a guardian for about 4 or 5 years and haven’t nearly seen everything and I was still learning.  But Peep Realtor taught me a whole lot and I am forever in his debt.  I spent a great deal of time making sure that he had the least restrictive environment and still made sure he was taken care of.  The most important thing I learned was to make sure Peep Realtor still thought he was needed and that he made a difference and most important I listened.  He definitely was one of those Peeps that I learned from my mistakes.  I have to laugh about it now.     

Many people do not have the opportunity I have to interact with elderly people on a regular basis.  Peep Realtor would engage you in a conversation you thought you would be so far removed from and would seem awkward at the time but he was a link to my past and I didn’t know it then but a link to my future. 

Peep Realtor gave me a deeper understanding and even made me more comfortable with my own aging process.  My biggest challenge was to let him be who he was and not change him just because he became elderly.  I never knew him when he was young; a vibrant man and busy with life and family.  However, I was the lucky one.   I got to hear what he experienced from the expert that knew.  I got to share his greatest possession----his memories.  Peep Realtor gave me a glimpse of both the past and the future.  I have to think…. does my family know me now at this age-----age 50?    I would like to give them the gift of really knowing me now.  Trying to get past attitudes, their approval, their acceptance, not to mention our busy lives…..it’s hard. But I think it will be easier when we get older to have their approval maybe because we are facing mortality.   I think at my age when I talk to my family they aren’t entering into my reality we have to get old to enter into reality.The elderly have already forgotten more then we know. What we must remember is that the elderly are moving toward the end of their lives in their own way, and we must allow them to make that step and LISTEN.