The Things One Learns....

O the things one learns in a nursing home!
We have an older man living here who cannot live on his own due to age and chronic health issues. Ray (not his real name) came to us virtually unresponsive and seemed to be in his own world. He would sometimes be rather messy when it came to bowel and bladder habits. He would eat little, or not at all.
That is gradually changing as the staff works with Ray. He is more vocal now and recognizes when people are speaking to him. He sometimes clears off his place at the table on his own, and enjoys walking with the staff (especially the female staff). But today I found out something about this man that I had not known, and probably would not have known had I not taken the time to watch a video.
You see, Ray is a pilot. And not only that, but he also has built airplanes...not for Boeing or Cessna, but for himself and others. And, he's a flight instructor. Ray has taught many an aspiring pilot how to fly.
Just looking at him now, one would think that this is a poor, little old man who had a less-than-thrilling life, commuting to work and back again, for forty or more years. Not so. Ray has seen the world in ways that many of us can only imagine, and has memories in his mind that make anything we know seem as kindling for his fire and persona.
I will from here on look at Ray in a different light, knowing what I now know. O the things one learns in a nursing home!