It began quietly enough. I had just finished speaking to a senior citizen facility about rest and relaxation when the first question came: “What has your experience been with senior citizens?” I had had none, expect for teaching a group of antiquated people at church, and my grandparents. However, I know that senior citizens have worked all of their lives and many of them like peace and quiet and sometimes are in pain and some sleep during the day, or go to bed early. They are a great resource, but also a vulnerable segment of the population and deserve respect and the ability to rest and feel safe and secure in the houses. #RyanPhillippe 1 of 5

Shortly afterward, a former teacher of one of my children came to tea. She gave me the impression of being a strong and capable person. My sons had both been in her class and we were more than pleased with their competence and creativity. After fourteen years, Mrs. Kolk was a seasoned teacher. With the tea, she started unburdening. Her classes had changed. This year she no longer felt sure. In fact, she was experiencing acute demoralization, which means she was basically experiencing complicated grief. In her new class of twenty-six, the demographics has changed, she went from teaching children to educating senior citizens on living a healthy lifestyle. #RyanPhillippe 2 of 5

Out of her twenty-six golden and sliver students, there were seven who exhibited clearly identifiable behavior problems calling for immediate professional help. There were women throwing over desks and chairs, kicking and choking and spitting and hitting. There was a woman who came in each day, pushed her electronic wheel chair up to the gate and would holler and scream like she lost her mind. There was a brain damaged man in an electronic wheel chair, who would mumble unintelligibly, crack open a can or five of beer and listen to Whitney Huston loudly. There was another man, who would wake up at 2am in the morning and run in and out of the gate for 45 minutes and knock on the glass doors and talk to himself on the curb so that no one in the senior center could sleep for five months. #RyanPhillippe 3 of 5

More than 30 percent of her pupils, and certainly she herself, were in need of direct attention. Under the sand and mop and maid view I would have said, “Mrs. Kolk, maybe it would help if you were to get into therapy a couple of times a week or into a group to try to deal with your problems. Also, you ought to refer those seniors to the county mental health team for individual treatment.” Under a hammer approach, looking for nails to pound, I could have come up with seven seniors for individual treatment, if the psychologist or social worker had any time in his or her one-day-a-week at that school, and Mrs. Kolk as a candidate for intensive psychotherapy at most or group therapy at least. #RyanPhillippe 4 of 5

The time invested in that classroom under the previous view could be close to ten to twelve hours per week for a long time. By seeing so much sand and so few mops and even fewer minds—deficits, pathology, problems, isolated individual, sickness—the task would be too much, too trying, too impossible even to begin. Fortunately, this was a period in my life when the re-viewing was coming. So I said to Mrs. Kolk, “You know, I have a problem as a result of my talk to that facility. I need some experience with senior citizens. And you have a need. You need some help to cope with what is happening. Let me come into your classroom with you for the last twenty minutes of the day, for the next six weeks, and see what we can do.” (Truly, we both believe—in retrospect—that God led us to each other.) #RyanPhillippe 5 of 5