Christmas Carer

One Christmas Eve,  I was working in the community, as a carer.  It had been snowing lightly for three days, and the snow was thick on the ground, but not a problem if you was a careful driver and watched where you were walking.  I had evening calls to do, to assist these lovely elderly persons into bed, so they were warm and safe till morning.  It was about six thirty in the evening and I approached a large splendid house where a spinster lived.  She once ran a potato marketing business and was very affluent lady, in her early nineties now.  On  visits during the week she had me going down into the cellar of her huge house, to bring back up to the drawing room, one potato, which she would take in her hands and inspect.  If it was not suitable, I had to take it back down the cellar and pick another one.  On my second trip down the long stone steps, I brought back a handful and thus ended her game or fetch.  It raised an eyebrow momentarily.  She was a staturuesque lady, with the firmest of skin I have ever seen.  She had the skin of a young girl in her twenties, and because I have to wash her, she looked very much like a young girl in all departments, and the most thickest strawberry blonde hair, that I had brushed everyday that week.  I had brushed that hair remembering how I used to brush my grandmothers hair, which was down to her waist, when I was only a girl.  I have always wished for long hair, I only had it in my teens, it takes a long time to wash and dry, sitting in front of the fire, with you mum shouting " don't sit there, you will melt the marrow in your back "..wonder if there's any truth in that old wives tale ?  That period was the only time I had long girlish hair to be proud of.  This ladys hair was thick and wavy and I wished that my hair would be like that, at her age.  I do notice in the context of my work, I am sorry but I am a person not a machine, although I do perfom my job professionally at all times there is a person inside this uniform and I can't alter that.  There were no sign of Christmas visiting this lady, no cards, no holly and not a mince pie, the only adornment was the beautiful snowflakes hanging off the conifers and the white icing on the lawns.
This snowy evening, I said to the lady that shortly I would return to help her into bed, as she slept  in the lower library, as she was unable to go upstairs.  Her reaction was just to look at me.  In view of the weather and it was Christmas Eve, I said I would return shortly for her evening call, and I left her seated in her wheelchair looking through the windows across the garden in all its white blanket finery.
I drove to the next lady on my list, in a tiny house hidden by an overgrown hedge.  I had not been here before to this call.  The door was locked and I had to knock very loud.  After ten munutes I heard the lock being undone and a small framed lady wrapped in a shawl opened the door.
"you are late" she said, I was expecting you earlier.
" I'm sorry, I have been delayed"
" come in out of the snow, let me look at you"..she gestured inside .  I could see a coal fire on the burn, and smell the smoky aroma of bog wood burning.  It smells like burnt toast crossed with bacon, but you have to smell it to know it.  It like when you smell tar, that has a smell that reminds me of years ago.  I don't get to smell that much now, they must have invented soemthing better than tar.  There were two fireside chairs, with plates.  One had a parcel on it, wrapped in christmas paper, and one with tin foil.
" sit down love" she said,
" I only want my nightie on, I will be going to bed soon" she sat down in the floral chair,
" that's Christmas cake for you, you must have some, it's so very nasty outside, and a little drink of brandy!"
" thankyou, thats so very welcome, but I can't drink the brandy as I'm driving"
She just smiled, this lady was how I would imagine a great grandmother to  be.  Guess this was twenty or more years ago.  What impressed me is she had gone to the trouble to be a little bit seasonal on this night, when she didn't have to really.  As she would, probably never see me again, as I didnt always work this area, I was covering for somebodies sickness.
" make a coffee or a tea then," she said
I did, I made a coffee, and I sat and chatted with the lady till the time was up, eating christmas cake and laughing, she gave me a box of chocolates which I didnt want to take , but she made me take them.  I thought how nice, on this cold night.  After my work was done I left and wished her a Merry Christmas.
A few hours later I was back at the huge house on the pond.  I let myself in through the key system, and came in smiling knowing that my shift here in this town was at the pen ultimate call.  It was approaching  ten o'clock.  The statureseque lady was sat rigid in her wheelchair, with a stern look on her face.
" hello! " I said,  it didn't dent the ice
" it's beginning to snow again"  I said.
" oh, well it would, it's Winter you know."
" yes it's cold out there, feels like Norway"
"I'm not going to bed !"  she said
" oh, well it is getting late"
"It doesn't matter to me"..she said.
I  did the things that I would usually do, like closing the curtains in other rooms, checking the locks and moving things from the sink into cupboards.  There was a huge aga in the kitchen that ran on oil, close to the cellar door.  That had to  be wiped down. 
"let's get you undressed and ready" I said
" ok, but Im not going to bed"
We went through the same procedures of undressing and into her night clothes, with a cardigan put on as we have done all this week.  I brushed her hair.  She washed her face with a warm flannel looking in the mirror at her reflection.  I could see myself also in her mirror as I stood behind brushing her hair.
" are you going to get into bed whilst I am here Emily?"
" No I am not, I am not"
" it's very late, and it's Christmas Eve,  I have been out of the house since six a.m. and I have to drive 12 miles to my home where my children are" I said,
" I don't care, what day it is, it is just another day to me"
" but it's Christmas Eve"
" it's just another day!"
It was a lesson.  It was a huge lesson in care.  It was JUST ANOThER DAY to her, as she had nobody that cared for her and she cared for no one.  It was JUST ANOTHER DAY to my employer also, they don't care if it's Christmas or the LAST  DAY ON EARTH...I would still have put people to bed then.
" you are right, it is just another day, so lets pretend it's Friday, let me help you into bed out of this wheelchair , then you will be safe all night Emily"
" ok, help me into bed"
And I did, sometimes the challenges put before us make us a better person than we are.
I still got home rather late, but I would have anyway like any other day.
But it was Christmas Eve, bless them both those lovely ladies.