Page 57 - Vibrant Living Scrapbook

Home Brings Out the Best in People (cont’d)
Bill
Bill gives candy to children who come to the nursing home, and to family members visiting their dying relatives. Maybe he would do this in any setting, but the point is he knows he is free to do it in the nursing home.
What Is “Normal”?
While living in a nursing home is a different living situation than we experience most of the rest of our lives, the things we do every day need not be that different. “Normal” is what is spontaneous, organic and natural,
not something that must be planned for or has a specific procedure. Most importantly, what is “normal” originates with the resident. It is normal for adults to determine for themselves what they will from one minute to the next.
Community Learning Circle Questions
What “unplanned normalcy” happens here? Are there householders who might be yearning to do something normal that we have missed?
How can we create the opportunity for them?
Bob
Bob was a stand-up comic, seriously. His profession in life was going on the road from club to club telling jokes. When Bob came to live at Bigfork his wife would come to community circles. Dementia effected Bob’s ability to communicate. So someone in the household asked his wife to share some of his jokes in a community circle to help people know about his life and who he is. The jokes were a big hit. Bob’s wife talked to their children and together they collected as many of his jokes as they could remember and shared them all with the community at Bigfork.
Bob was no longer able to initiate the jokes so staff worked to learn the jokes and would do the set up. You couldn’t help but laugh when he delivered the punch line. And he did, every time. The laughs he got lit him up like nothing else and enabled him to continue to be who he’s always been. The funniest guy around!
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