Arriving into Hebrew Senior Life, I found Pearl in her bedroom when I saw that she wasn’t in the dining hall. So, I grabbed a chair, ready to walk towards her room. Before doing so, another elderly man introduced himself to me as Towne. He asked me if I was a student from Harvard, who came to visit, and where I was going. Upon hearing my mention of Pearl’s name, he, like many I have met, sincerely said that she was a sweet lady. He also commented on how often her son came to visit. I noticed that sweet was a word often attached to Pearl—more to follow later! I talked a bit with Towne, who was very nice, before heading to Pearl’s Room.
After a few minutes of sitting by Pearl, she awoke. Her first reaction was to smile at me and ask what time it was. I handed her my phone, and she looked at it before saying: “It’s not early, it’s ten past seven!” Although it was 10:07 AM, I agreed with her in that it wasn’t early. We talked a little bit about how tired she was yesterday and what was going on today, but her hearing wasn’t too good today. As we fell silent, I played some piano music for us from my laptop. Although we didn’t say too much, the silence was comforting.
I loved being in her room which is very homely. Shown in the picture is not only the lovely weather today, but also pictures Pearl’s grandchildren drew for her.
The rest of the visit passed by with some small talk (one of my favorite moments was when Pearl turned to me and enthusiastically asked me, “So, what’s cooking?”), piano music, and some dozing off. As always, we exchanged hugs and kisses before I left. Walking out of Hebrew Senior Life always leaves me in a better mood than I walked in.
Ellen Zhang