Hattie (Thank God for Today)

As you saw in the last blog post, our seniors have been exchanging friendship offerings in the form of stories, speeches (and full-sized bear hugs with teens!) One such offering was Hattie’s story about Arthur FOR Arthur. So imagine this, Hattie – who carries a perpetual smile (she’s the one with the fuchsia shirt in the bear-hug photo) – reading along, until the line about an unnamed senior being “really down in the dumps”. At the other side of the table, Arthur suddenly exploded in laughter. They exchanged knowing glances, and we all knew the story was written about him. He carried on laughing until well after Hattie read her last sentence.

The punchline? Well, this didn’t come about till almost half an hour later, when eleven other people took their turns reading their stories, and finally it was Arthur’s turn – he had written about the same incident, and beamed as he told it out loud. His conclusion was so awesome, it got the whole class cheering and laughing WITH Arthur. Stay tuned for that story in the next blog post!

Happy Monday!

Hattie Lee Ellerbe
August 19, 2010
Thank God for Today

I thank God for today for as it is truly a very happy day for me.  It seems that every one I meet today is in a very happy and joyful mood.

There was a man at our lunch table at the Philadelphia Senior Center.  He was really down in the dumps and feeling empty. It only took one incident to bring him around and he was shaking with laughter.

One of the helpers in the dining room was in such a hurry that when he cleared a table he snatched up a plate of a man who had just began to eat. As he dumped the plate into the trash, he heard someone yell, "I wasn't finished..." The look on his face was so funny that our friend down in the dumps laughed until he almost cried. This made us all feel good just to see him out of his depressed mood.

Laughter is such good medicine!!!