Wisdom Shared

Some days, in medicine, you don’t know what the day will bring.

An elderly patient was talking away-she apologized almost immediately for her chattering.  “I am home alone most days, and a little nervous about being here for THIS.”

I prefer talk over dead-quite during an exam, so I was not bothered.

As she was scooting down the table (guys you will have to ask the girl in your life why they scoot down),  she said, “This wouldn’t be so hard if you weren’t so young and good looking!”

Now, my assistant, who has been with me for years, and is my same age, couldn’t silence her snickering.  I shot her a dirty look and reminded her about her paycheck- unsigned on my desk.

She, of course laughed and ignored me, as usual.  No, nurses, I don’t have the great doctor syndrome- my lovely, nurse wife beat that out of me years ago.

My point is, (yes I do have one), is that perspective changes your view of the world. And no, I am not talking about the perspective of someone in stirrups.  But, in this case,  the perspective of an 85+ year old lady who lived alone.

Any guy that was under 75 and didn’t look like a mass murderer, was young and good looking to her.  She would have talked to anyone that stopped and showed her a little courtesy.

Now you might think, listening to little old ladies would get old after 25 plus years of practicing medicine.  That I am disparaging her comments.

Just the opposite.  She was a delight, (and not JUST because she thought I was young and handsome…) and profound in her pronouncements.

And believe me, folks who live past 85 and are still graced with a sharp mind, usually have a sharp wit, and an opinion to go with it.  And in her case, spiced with a little blue language, I am sure she learned from her late husband!

Folks her age, don’t care much what other people think- about their speaking their minds.  They feel they have earned the right.  Earned it by getting up and getting dressed everyday for many decades.  Keeping a house, paying taxes, raising kids, and burying a husband.

Sometime during the exam,  she began waxing philosophically about war. Her late husband had fought in combat in World War II, and was sometimes “difficult” when he had too much to drink-that means abusive, in little old lady speak-but she still loved him and missed him.

She said, when she was younger, and her husband to be,  was in uniform, war seemed glorious, and the patriotic thing.  Now, she had many grandsons, and great grandsons, and she didn’t think war was ever a good thing.  Every time she heard on the news about another casualty in the middle-east-she saw those kids.

And she thought we needed to quit fighting and bring the boys (and girls, I reminded her) home.

Now I am considered conservative, and am always supportive of the men and women who serve in the military.   My father also served in the Pacific during World War II,  and I know he fought a few demons during the remainder of his life.

And I am too far away from what is going on in Afghanistan to know the details-the intelligence, and complex issue that is terrorism.  But this proud lady was quite certain she was right.

And I can’t, with certainty, say she is wrong.

Don’t ask me what this has to do with personal finance, I can’t say.  But this lady moved my heart, with her concern about nameless and faceless  young men losing their lives, and I just felt I needed to share.

Tags: Wisdom of the elderly

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 21st, 2010 at 6:23 am and is filed under Quality of Life. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.