{"id":339,"date":"2026-04-10T19:21:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-10T19:21:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/agewithgracecare.com\/?p=339"},"modified":"2026-04-10T19:21:12","modified_gmt":"2026-04-10T19:21:12","slug":"loneliness-and-reading","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/agewithgracecare.com\/?p=339","title":{"rendered":"Loneliness and Reading"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Hello AWG Team!Hello Spring!\"\ud83c\udf37\"\"\ud83e\ude77\"\"\ud83c\udf40\"
March has been a great month so far with new clients, new shifts and all of you that have graciously taken on more hours and shifted your schedules to care for each of these individuals.  Thank you!
Our new client, Christine and her husband Gary said that Angel is top tier and a gem, she quickly became Christine’s bff in only a couple visits.  We are so grateful to her!
Donna, who would not open the door to her caregivers and often told them to go away in another room because she didn’t need the help or care, now she hugs Madelyn and tells her that she loves her!
Spring is a time of new beginnings, flowers come up new, new leaves come out on the trees, new chicks are born. Try something new this spring, maybe look at things with fresh eyes and a new perspective.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This could be a new way of looking at reading…an antidote to loneliness. I really love this article about reading to someone, beautiful things can happen, try it if you haven’t and let us know how it goes.\"\ud83d\udcda\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reading:  The Antidote to Loneliness<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They don\u2019t ask for much \u2013 just a good story now and then. Sometimes, a lot of the time, they may not be able to ask, but you can see it in their eyes. Tired eyes that are saying \u201cI can\u2019t make out the words anymore.\u201d Proud eyes that hate to say, \u201cI\u2019ve had a stroke. I can\u2019t hold a book in my hands.\u201d Quiet eyes that are asking, \u201cCould you take a minute and read me a story?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Usually a love story that might take them back to a time when they were young and in love as only the young can love.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Helen closes her eyes when I read, perhaps to keep me from reading something in them that is for her eyes only. But she cannot hide the smile that dances across her face. She can not hide the way her hands, folded over her chest, sway back and forth to a melody of memories only she can hear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rebecca asks me to change the names in every story to Rebecca and Franklin. She does not close her eyes when I read. She stares, beyond the room, beyond the walls, beyond the building \u2013 beyond time itself, into a world where a man named Franklin and a woman named Rebecca lived and loved and promised a forever to each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

John likes me to read to him. Most men don\u2019t but John does. I think it\u2019s because every woman in every story is, in John\u2019s mind, a woman whose heart he once won. He doesn\u2019t say it but \u2026 and lost.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I used to wonder if the seniors I read to considered me a time thief, stealing a little of what little they might have left. But no. I have learned that reading to someone is the antidote to loneliness. It is like giving and getting a hug when we need it most.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A good story is a good escape.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A good safe place to hide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From a step that isn\u2019t quite as strong as it once was, from eyes a little dimmer than just the other day, from a mind not quite as sharp.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A good story can turn today into yesterday, when loneliness was absent, love and respect ever present. A good story is, indeed, a good escape from, as Shakespeare wrote, \u201csecond childishness and mere oblivion, sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My grandmother was considered forever lost to Alzheimer\u2019s. The last time I saw her, her eyes were closed. No, they were crushed shut. Her fists were clenched so tightly around her bible I could almost see the blood draining from her veins and she was tap, tap, tapping her feet, faster and faster until the tapping became an angry stomping. She was digging into her mind, trying to remember someone, something, anyone, anything, but the deeper she dug the further down she fell into the abyss that was once a well of golden memories. Every memory that had been tucked away for safekeeping, every moment of love and hope, every dream, every victory, every loss, every moment worth saving \u2013 no longer accessible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I removed the Bible from her grip then sat on the floor and started reading. Before long her hands relaxed, she stopped stomping her feet and the only sound in the room was the sound of my voice. I read to her for about an hour. Finally, sadly, I kissed her goodbye. My hand was on the doorknob when she called to me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBilly? Is that you?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I turned. Saw the recognition in her eyes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe had some times, didn\u2019t we, Billy?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That was all. As quickly as it had come, the light went from her eyes and she was gone again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Don\u2019t be afraid to read to someone considered forever lost to Alzheimer\u2019s. You might just find yourself in the middle of a miracle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gwenna is 93.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In our world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In hers, she is somewhere between seven and eight and what person between seven and eight-years-old doesn\u2019t like a bedtime story? Gwenna prefers stories about angels. One night, long after the bedtime story had lulled her to sleep, Gwenna woke, saw me sitting at her bedside, book of stories still on my lap and asked, \u201cAre you my guardian angel?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYes, darlin\u2019, I am.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAnd you have a book.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAnd I have a book.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI like that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Carry a book of stories with you. Read to someone who can no longer read for himself or herself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A good story will lift your old friends from a life as empty as a weed-ridden patch of dirt into the Garden of Eden.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By William McDonald, Today’s Caregiver<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hello AWG Team!Hello Spring!March has been a great month so far with new clients, new shifts and all of you that have graciously taken on more hours and shifted your schedules to care for each of these individuals.  Thank you!Our new client, Christine and her husband Gary said that Angel is top tier and a gem, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,2],"tags":[9,7,11,14,10,15,12,13,19,8],"class_list":["post-339","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-caregiving","category-senior-in-home-health-care","tag-aging","tag-caregiver","tag-elderly","tag-home-health-care","tag-in-home-healthcare","tag-in-home-health-care","tag-in-home-healthcare-2","tag-joyinthejourney","tag-lonliness","tag-seniors"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/agewithgracecare.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/339","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/agewithgracecare.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/agewithgracecare.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agewithgracecare.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agewithgracecare.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=339"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/agewithgracecare.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/339\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":341,"href":"https:\/\/agewithgracecare.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/339\/revisions\/341"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/agewithgracecare.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=339"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agewithgracecare.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=339"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agewithgracecare.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=339"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}