Singing in the Nursing Home

I don't remember the first time Travis and I sang together. I know we sang "He's Still Workin' on Me", but I don't remember it actually happening. If I had to guess, I would say I was around 4 or 5. (which would've made him 7 or 8.) We sang together a lot after that. It was something our family really loved doing together. We always sang Psalm 18;3 as a family. It was a joy of mine. But Travis and I sang often in competitions, for church services, camp, etc. We even made a "cassette tape" of ourselves. We had big dreams of selling it so we could make some money for our family vacation (which we tell on the tape is a trip to King's Island!). I think I was around 6 and Travis around 9. I would give a lot to get my hands on that tape again. Travis wrote a song on it. It was entitled "Jesus, He's My Friend". Oh boy, if only you could hear that! The words went a little something like this, "Jesus, He's my Friend. He helps me when I'm sick, or when I'm not feeling good. I love Jesus. He's my Friend." It was a ...song. :)

But one of the most enjoyable moments I have had singing with Travis was at the nursing homes. Our church held services on Sunday afternoons at various nursing homes. A man from the church would go and preach, and we would go with them to sing. (usually if Kim Dye was playing the piano!) I don't remember how old we were to be honest. I'm going to guess 5th grade and 8th grade, but it may have been a little younger than that. We went for several years. But on this glorious day, we were at a certain nursing home, and had just finished singing. We were sitting behind the speaker on a love seat. There is always distractions, as you can imagine, in the nursing home services. We had been instructed by mom and dad that no matter what was happening around us, we were to keep our eyes on the speaker and pay attention. Well, I had noticed that a lady, who I don't know how old she was, but from my young memory had to have been 130 years old, was slowly making her way in her wheel chair over towards Travis and me. We were glancing at each other thru our peripheral vision every once and a while, careful not to smile. I started getting a little nervous. She was getting closer and closer. I let out a little snicker, not sure what exactly she was doing, but she was smiling at us and saying something under her breath. Travis kicked me. I knew I had to gain control of myself or I was going to get us both in trouble. So I kept my eyes on the speaker. But she kept coming..closer, closer, closer...she was directly in front of us. Now remember, we are behind the speaker. So the whole audience can see us as well. She was just looking at us and smiling the biggest, toothless smile you have ever seen. That's when it happened!!!

Travis whispered to me, "lift your feet". I looked down. The lady who had so kindly rolled over to us, had apparently thought us to be the bathroom. I will never forget it as long as I live. I have never seen a little tiny lady have so much..."liquid" in her in my whole life! And now it was directly under our feet. We were not moving. We had our feet a little off the ground so the liquid could flow freely under us, but we did our best to keep our eyes on the speaker. (altho at this point, I wasn't doing so well!) When she had finished, she said, "Thank you", and slowly rolled away! Now we were stuck. I was thinking, "What in the world are we supposed to do?" We couldn't stand up. My legs were getting very tired and starting to shake from holding them up off the ground. Thankfully, the speaker said, "Let's pray." As soon as he bowed his head Travis said, "Roll off the end". We pulled our feet on to the couch and rolled over the arm of the chair on to safe ground!!!

It's pretty funny now, and to Kim Dye (who got to observe the whole thing from the dry ground of the piano bench) it was always funny! We learned our lesson. We sat in the back from then on. And on the occasions that I get the opportunity to serve the Lord at nursing homes now, I still sit in the back!!!