Have you asked yourself, what would it be like to be old and unable to care for yourself? To leave your home and live in a nursing home? I was a nursing assistant, a CNA, in a local nursing home for three years. A soul opener.

I asked myself: "Who are these people? He, whose head is bowed, asleep in his wheelchair? She, with her walker in search of her room? Who were they?

What of her smile, her wrinkled kind face? What of her children, her Thanksgivings, on her mother's lap? Did she dance before her father? Sled on her hill with her brothers?

And he, who snarls--complains? What was his life like? Was he loved? Did he love?

Old age creeps up on us. We look in the mirror and see an old man or woman. "Where did that time pass?" we ask. "Will anyone recall when I was young, could run, sing, dance, make love? Will I be alone and forgotten?

I invite you to read these stories, a glimpse of the profound depth and mystery of each person.