I have a neighbor who is, lets say oldish. I don't want to come up with an age and say that's old, because someone would surely think I mean they are old. Not that any of y'all are.
So I have this neighbor who is somewhere between my folk's age and E's grandma's age who does this weird thing. She does it daily, maybe more than once a day.
She walks in the hallway, end to end then back to her middle apartment. That's not the weird part. I walk in the hallway up and down and up etc, pushing Ranger in a stroller hoping it will get him napping.
What makes her walking weird is that she takes a step, then feet together. Then step, then feet together. She normally walks fine, so this step, together, step is odd. But not the oddest thing.
In her left hand she holds up a little sign, made up of what looks like a notecard and a Popsicle stick. All that is on there is a capital "D". She holds her arm out so that her upper arm is at (basically) a right angle from her body, then makes a circle with her hand while holding the sign and stepping. I can't explain it better than that.
At first, when we were first moving in, I supposed she was going senile. What? What was I supposed to think with my neighbor in her robe over her pj's walking the halls like that?
But there was no evidence of the kind when I spoke with her on the occasions we were coming or going at the same time. She seems nice. And not off her rocker.
Then I figured she had some sort of physical therapy exercise assignment to do, and the hallway is the longest stretch of open area to do it in. The step, together, step motion reminds me of the type of thing physical therapists have you do. But that doesn't explain the hand circling. Or the big "D" on the card.
I still don't know what it's all about (hokey pokey!) and while I am curious, I figure, she does it for whatever reason she does it. Why would I care? As long as she isn't doing it naked while singing 99 bottles on the wall at midnight.
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Well, you can't just assume she's not senile because she makes sense most of the time. My grandmother talked "normal" to people, so most people couldn't figure out why in the world we said there was something wrong with her. Her sentences made sense, and she didn't talk about little green men or something...she SOUNDED like she was making sense, nevermind she was talking about having just visited with people who had been dead for 10 years or making up whole stories about relatives moving away to Lord knows where. She really didn't have a clue any more, and couldn't even be left alone (think leaving the stove on or eating things which were NOT edible, which she started doing). So, that's very possible, still, that something is wrong with her, mentally. Because you wouldn't know if she was making up what she was telling you on the spot.
ReplyDeleteAnd...maybe she does have a reason, though I have no suggestions as to what that could possibly be. ???