When I hear other writers bemoan the fact they are still finding it difficult to spark their imaginations, I give thanks for my visits to my father in a long-term care facility. You may think that is an unusual association of ideas, but let me explain.
My father was 95 and had Alzheimer’s. He had to be placed in long-term care near my home and I visited him almost every day. Sometimes I was lucky and he remembered me, but more often, he did not. He did not speak much anymore, so to make our visits more interesting for both of us, I started telling him stories about my childhood. I was only returning the favour as he told me a nightly bedtime story until I was 12. It was always the same story, a garbled version of Peter Rabbit, but I loved both the story and that quiet time with my dad’s voice lulling me to sleep.
Alzheimer’s destroys short-term memory, but some long-term memory remains. My dad had no idea if he had lunch on any given day, but when I mentioned events from our past that he remembered, his eyes lit up. He followed along with my story, nodding his head, and occasionally adding details in his thick Scottish accent. As he began to tell me more things that he remembered, ideas for my writing began to simmer in my brain.
We emigrated from England to Canada in the 1950s and had to make a new life here. It wasn’t always easy and there are some funny, as well as sad, tales that have survived as part of our family lore. These are all food for the creative soul.
But I also found more inspiration for stories at the care facility than by just talking to my dad.
For example, I recently went to visit on a day when a singer was performing for the residents. My dad had already been wheeled into the activity room when I arrived. I pulled a chair up beside him and held his hand – did I mention he liked to hold my hand? While I watched the show, I found my imagination captured by the centre’s residents and their reactions to the singer and her music. Some waved their arms in time with the melody; some sang along while some just sat and smiled. The singer and the animator interacted with all of them, making sure they felt part of the event.
One lady, who had only one leg, used her hands and her one foot to propel her wheelchair around the floor as she sang and “danced” along with the performer. My imagination was engaged and I wondered about her past. What had her life been like years ago? Why did she like dancing so much that she would exert herself to do it despite her infirmity? What tale could she tell or how could I use her courage in one of my stories?
Looking around at these patients in their so-called “golden” years, my eyes were picking up tales of sadness and loss as well as ones about happy times being relived as the residents listened to their favorite music.
The sad part of the event was that very few of the residents had visitors with them and I was told that appears to be the norm at many of these care facilities. Families are spread out across the world today and often the grandparent is the only person still living in the former family residence or hometown. Some of these people end up isolated in care facilities, with only the rare visitor. It is a very sad fact of modern life.
One man I met was extremely bitter that his children had “dumped” him there and never came to see him. He said they figured they have “solved” his situation. Another lady, trapped in her wheelchair, unable to talk, made noises and held out her arms. She tried to connect with anyone who came near her. The nurses told me “she just wants to give you kisses. She misses her family.” It is so sad that she had no one to give kisses to but strangers and no way of sharing her story with anyone.
So here’s an idea – if you lack inspiration for your writing, why not volunteer to visit these lonely souls? Care facilities usually have volunteer groups that will be happy to have some help with activities and events and along the way you may meet some wonderful people with amazing stories to share. You’ll be doing something caring and you will be helping yourself at the same time. Inspiration is all around us and in all kinds of places – even in long-term care facilities. Visit one today and makes some new friends whose stories will spark your imagination.
