Renee Oelrich

I walked through the double doors and checked in at the service desk. I get a few smiles from the workers as I make my way to the community room. I’m dressed up as Goofy today. I shuffle through the open doors and head to the closest elderly. I bend down and give her a big hug, then hold her hand for a moment as she looks up and smiles. A lot of smiles, laughter and commotion is livening this small group up for the moment. I bobble my head and make a Goofy kind of laugh; throw my hands to my mouth, like Goofy and place my hands on my hip a few times. Then I take out my two tennis balls and start tossing them in the air, catch them, then toss again and catch a few more times, maybe crisscross them a few times, grab them and put my arms out as a “Ta Dah” moment while nodding my head a bit. Most of them laugh and smile, a few clap and one guy, rubbing his chin, says, “but you only juggled two balls, where’s your third ball.” So, I drop both balls and grab my pockets, pat my rump and hold hands out, lift my shoulders in a “I don’t know’ gesture. I go over to the white board and make out the Hangman game. I scratch my head a few times, then stick my finger up in a ‘aha’ gesture, then start placing black lines on the board, spaced to indicate three words. I write to the side the word ‘Hint: Food’ and turn back to the group. A lady and a guy yell out a letter. I point at the lady and write the letter on my lines. Then I turn back at the guy and point at him. He yells his letter again and I write it on the lines. We played for a bit, some went back to the puzzles on the table, a few dozed off, most sat in puzzlement, but that one lady just kept calling out letters. I went on to add socks, shoes, a sweater and hat to the man hanging on the white board. I finally started dancing and filled all the lines for ‘chocolate chip cookies’; which was the snack the orderlies were bringing in. I move around the room, giving hugs and handshakes, some pats on the shoulders and heads. I tried a few puzzle pieces, but the Goofy gloves are too big. Then I brought a cookie to the lady who guessed all the letters. She smiles and says “thanks” but just sits holding the cookie. I make some gesture motions and try to comfort her. She just sits and looks at me, at her cookie and finally says, “It’s not very happy here, thanks for coming, it was so much fun.” I point at the window and say quietly, “out there in the sky is where the Angels play. They’re there rolling cookie dough and making cookie clouds. I enjoy their cookies most of all, because all our loved ones gather there to have an Angel cloud cookie.” The lady nibbled on her cookie while she looked out the window, smiling. I slipped away and grabbed a cookie. Outside, I nibbled on my cookie while I watched the lady still nibbling on her cookie in the window looking at the clouds, smiling.