who is this woman........

I was finishing up my shift today and looked into the eyes of an elderly woman who was lying quietly in her bed. Our eyes met for a moment and I wondered just what she was thinking. Her steel blue eyes were calm, they were soft and they spoke a silent language that I longed to understand. I wanted to be able to read the words that I felt her eyes were speaking. I wanted to be connected to her thoughts and just what they would be. We had spent the day together as patient and caregiver, but did I even know anything about her as a person? I really only knew her as a name and diagnosis and what I needed to do to care for her. This woman though has a life story and a legacy. My mind drifted to a place where I imagined her as a young girl laughing and playing with  her friends. I'm sure she was once a young woman with hopes and dreams for herself and I couldn't help but wonder what they were. She has a life story, but is now too frail to share it. This woman is not just a patient in a hospital bed, but a woman who has had a life full of experiences and memories. What does she remember as she lies there day in and day out. Does she go back in time and think of all the wonderful times she had in her life?.....or on the contrary are there memories that she would rather not revisit. We are so, so busy in the health profession these days that we most often don't even have time to realize that we are caring for a 'person'.....not a disease or illness. We can't forget that our patients were people once who lived full lives and have a story to tell......whatever it may be. Everyone wants to be acknowledged during their lives and this woman is no different even as she lays in her hospital bed. Her eyes are asking us to see her for what she really is......a woman who lived a life the best way she knew how.........and has now handed over to us the gift of caring for her.
 She still has value......and she still has a life story.......not unlike someday I will have a life story and I would want someone to look into my eyes and wonder what mine was.