Lights and Shadows

in a Nursing Home

November 4, 2013

When a daughter takes her mother to a nursing home to live, it is disturbing for both of them. Neither one has a road map to navigate in this new world. As the daughter visits her mother off and on over the next 13 years, she connects with rooms, nurses, CNAs, residents, a beautician, and more. As the poet tours her mother's room, the hallways, the library, the art room, and the dining area, she is enthralled with this tilted world, its extraordinary people, the varied activities. What begins as grief becomes a winning way of life for her mother, a woman of wit and resilience. One poem at a time, Pat Durmon (daughter, poet, and passionate observer) reveals honest and tender moments of those living in a world filled with questions, fears, and unexpected joys. She finds all this by flying in and out of the light and shadows in a nursing home and by keeping her heart open.