Day 1

A few years ago I spent some time working in a nursing home. The job was awful. Really awful. But the people were amazing. One of the ladies was truly amazing and she got deep into my heart. One day while I was cleaning out her room, I was taking out the garbage and the bag broke open. All these old, small black and white photos fell out. I brought them back to her, thinking she must have thrown out the wrong bag. She told me "I am old, no one wants to look at these photos anymore.” She told me I could have them if I wanted, but she didn't understand why I would want photos of a stranger. I took them home and spent many hours looking through them. Loving them. A few months later she had a bad fall in her room. I sat with her while we waited for the ambulance. She told me about how she and her husband had moved from Germany in the 1940s and a little about their life in here. He had died many years earlier and she had no other family. She also told me I was a good friend. She died a few days later. I kept the photos to myself for a long time, taking them out every few days to look at them. The photos are beautiful and so was she. I didn't know her very well, but when I look at the photos I miss her.