The Elegant One.

One of my Lady clients is the epitome of elegance.
She is also the epitome of diminishing cognitive function but she is unaware of that fact.
We just try to keep her safe in her home, and as her family is very involved and assessible, it is not a difficult job. We do not do very much in there expect keep her medications on time, and try to get her to eat. Being a very slender lady, this is more important that in many homes, where a meal or 2 left uneaten would not be a crisis. We have not yet found the right person to be her shower girl, but perhaps in time that will come. Or not. My money is on NOT.

I enjoy my time with her very much, although I merely do meds there and try to slip in the occasional nicely turned out luncheon plate. I am more successful than most with that, as I make it look like it came from the kitchens of a swank Montreal deli. And she is always delighted and eats it as she tells me, sometimes in French, one of her stories. She has around 25 of them that she shuffles, but they are all good ones. Sometimes I can coax a new one out of her if I am wearing a good ring or a fancy uniform. Because the day I see her I have *zero* personal care, blood, urine or anything else tasks, I wear one of my nicer outfits.

I am still rather fond of clothes and even though 9 out of 10 workdays I wear a uniform, I can choose from 25 different smocks and jackets and 8 different pants. I wear one of 20 different knit singlets underneath and still wear my gold sovereign on a chain. A beautiful thick chain that I got from my former boss for spot plus $3.00 per gram. (mmm) I am sure many of the staff at all levels think I believe myself to be a Princess. They are almost right. I am the Queen. No need to bow though. My domain is solely the world within, and those who come to my domicile. I am not interested in extended my realm farther. I do, however, tend to elicit comments from people along the lines of:

"She is very capable. VERY." (that within my hearing. I suspect it gets altered elsewhere).

"Ah, the one with the rings." (unfair, I only wear an emerald flat bandand a diamond flat band, and two pinkie rings that are gold bands. Nothing that could catch on skin and I remove them all during care.)

And my favourite:
"Ah the entertainer. She shouldd have been on stage." (Very fair and yeah baby, all day every day thank you!)
That's the polite version.
I also get the "She thinks she knows everything because she took all those extra courses and got some stupid award" people, and hey that's all right too. They know that I DO KNOW everything pertinent to what I am undertaking but they don't know that it is an art and enterprise to stay current and informed and up to date and when I don't know something I make it my business to learn it. I am very teachable andd very interested in improving.
And my time in the other world of private enterprise swimming with barracudas gave me that. I can take correction well. Because I know I have the ability to learn and change.

I also have great confidence in my discernment.
That is not mine. It is something God lent to me. It is God in me. It is a gift.
That gift makes the difference between good and great.
That gift makes me invaluable in certain key situations.
And it is where we come back to the Elegant Lady.

She is changing; but just slightly.
I see it because she tells me her stories of the times she defines who she is by.
And yesterday, for the very first time, she repeated herself 4 times in our hour, and was completly unaware of it. She had not had a tasty alcoholic beverage. She had not yet taken her meds. She was wide awake and in no serious pain. It is a change.

The good thing is that I am confident that she will retain that elegance even as her abilities decrease. She may deteriorate to where she is no longer safe to be at home even with great family involvement but she will be unsafe with her hair coiffed and a silk scarf on.

I love her to bits.
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