(*names have been changed)
we were sitting together in her loungeroom
watching mamma mia for what seemed like the thousandth time. daphne* loves
mamma mia and we watch it together often. and by often i mean often. like the
number of times you’ve eaten toast this week, that’s probably the number of
times i’ve watched mamma mia this week.
i loved mamma mia the musical when i saw it
in london a few years back, and i enjoyed mamma mia the film the first time i
saw it, but by its thousandth watch it loses some if its magic. you begin to
realise (probably around the first viewing) that pierce brosnan, although
lovely to look at, isn’t a particularly gifted singer. so i sat with daphne –
bunkered down – ready to enjoy the sensation of my ears spontaneously bleeding
to the tune of brosnan massacring SOS.
daphne is a client i work with regularly
when i am at home in australia topping up my adventure-fund (you may have heard
this referred to as a savings account by real adults). you’re not supposed to
have favourite clients, but she is, without question, mine. she has physical
and intellectual disabilities so life is a bit tougher for her than it is for
me. when i go to work i help her to have a shower, get dressed and eat her
breakfast. she loves movies and music... so a movie with music in it sends her
into a joy spiral the likes of which i don’t see too often. we love to sing together.
daphne is difficult to understand when she’s speaking and i often have to ask
her to repeat herself three or four times before i figure out what she’s
saying. but when we’re banging out some abba, beatles or simon & garfunkle
classics together, her croaky, not-so-much-in-tune, hard-to-understand voice becomes one
of the most beautiful sounds in my world. pierce could learn a thing or seven.
as i watched/endured brosnan ‘singing’ more
of daphne and my favourite tunes, she looked down at her right arm with a puzzled
expression on her face. “what’s that kt... who did that?” she was pointing to
her right forearm with her clenched up left hand but i couldn’t figure out what
she was talking about. “what is it kt... who did those patterns?” i thought she
may have had a scratch or bruise on her and i became a little concerned, so
looked a bit closer. but i couldn’t see what she was talking about. “those
beautiful patterns kt... who did them on me?” i was baffled for the longest
time... but after about ten minutes of questions and pondering i solved the
beautiful riddle. she was pointing to her wrinkles.
daphne is in her 60s and i was sitting next
to her when she realised for the first time that she had wrinkles on her
skin... and she thought they were the most beautiful patterns she had ever
seen... and she wanted to thank the person who had put them there. i only wish
i was capable of creating something as beautiful as those wrinkles.
life is good people. be grateful for the
skin you are in... wrinkles and all!
