Benelli’s Mommy ❌ :
One of my favorite residents was a sweet lady named Martha who had dementia. She would often become restless and insist that she needed to leave because she wanted to go home.
After several rounds of trying to convince her to stay, I finally looked at her and said, “Martha, my mom paid you five whole dollars to babysit me. If you leave me here all by myself, my mom is going to be really, really mad.”
Mind you, I was in my thirties at the time. 😂
Martha looked me straight in the eyes, thought about it for a moment, and said, “Well, I guess if I took the money, I don’t have much choice. I’ll have to stay here and watch over you.”
Then she asked, “Would you like me to read you a story?”
And just like that, Martha settled in beside me and began reciting nursery rhyme after nursery rhyme completely from memory.
Dementia may have made Martha forget where she was or why she was there, but it hadn’t taken away the part of her that knew how to care for someone. All it took was believing that somebody needed her—and suddenly, going home could wait. She had a job to do. ❤️
2026-09-01 23:15:04