Crabby Old Woman
When an old lady died in the geriatric ward of a small hospital near  Dundee Scotland, it was  believed that she had nothing left of any value.
 
Later, when the nurses  were going through her meager possessions,  they found this poem. Its quality and  content so impressed the staff  that copies were made and distributed to every  nurse in the hospital.  One nurse took her copy to Ireland. The  old lady's sole bequest to posterity has since appeared in the  Christmas edition of the New s Magazine of the North Ireland  Association  for Mental Health. A slide presentation has also been made based on her simple, but eloquent, poem. And this little old Scottish lady, with nothing left to give to
the world,  is now  the author of this "anonymous" poem winging across the  Internet:
 
Crabby Old Woman
 
What  do you see, nurses ..... What do you see?
What are you thinking  ........... When you are looking At me?
A crabby old woman ............  Not very wise,
Uncertain of habit,  . .............. With  faraway eyes?
Who dribbles her food ........... And makes no reply.
When  you say in a loud voice....."I do wish you'd try!"

Who seems not to notice  ...........The things that you do,
And forever is losing ..................A stocking or shoe?
Who, resisting or not, ............ ... Lets you do as you will,
With bathing and feeding, ....... The long day to fill?

Is that  what you're thinking? .... Is that what you see?
Then open your eyes, nurse,  ....You're not looking at me.
I'll tell you who I am ................As  I  sit here so still,
As  I do at your bidding, ......... As I eat at your will.

I'm a small child of ten .........With a father and  mother,
Brothers and sisters ........... Who love one another.
A  young girl of sixteen ...........With wings on her feet
Dreaming that  soon now ........ A lover she'll meet.

A bride soon at twenty,  ............ My heart  gives a leap,
Remembering the vows .............That I promised to keep.
At twenty-five now, ................... I have young of my own,
Who need me to guide ........... And a secure happy home.
 
A  woman of thirty, .................. My young now grown fast,
Bound to each  other................ With ties that should last.
At forty, my young sons ........... Have grown and are gone,
But my man's beside me .........  To see I don't mourn

At fifty once more, .............. Babies play  round my knee,
Again we know children, .......  My loved one and  me

Dark days & despair are  upon  me, ......... My husband is dead,
I look at  the future, ...........I shudder with dread.
For my young are all  rearing ..........Young of  their own,
And I think of the years ............ And  the love that I've known.
I'm now an old woman............... And nature is cruel;
Tis jest to make old age  ........... . Look like a fool.
The body,  it crumbles, ............. Grace and vigor depart,
There is now a stone  .............. Where I once had a heart.

But inside this old carcass  ...... A young girl still dwells,
And now and again, ........... My  battered heart swells.
I remember the joys, ............ I remember the pain,
And I'm loving and living ....... Life over again.

I think of  the years ................. All too few, gone too fast,
And accept the  stark fact ....... That nothing can last.
So open your eyes, people .....  Open and see,
Not a crabby old woman; ........ Look closer....see,  ME !!

Remember this poem when you next meet an older person (man or woman) who you might brush aside without looking at the young soul within.....we will all, one  day, be there, too!