By Elizabeth Smith, January 27, 2019 — Oh boy, where do I start? I was born and raised in West Philadelphia. I come from a big family. There are twelve of us, six boys and six girls. Some have passed away, but that happens when you get older. I grew up near a park where we used to play with friends on our street. We walked from here to there and it was great because I like to walk a lot. Our parents would take us to the library to read and sometimes we would go to the park next door. We had fun growing up.
Before I was married, I worked for the School for the Blind. I really enjoyed working with the kids there. I got some things right and some things I got wrong, just like in any job. After that, I worked in the kitchen at the Wills Eye Hospital for a couple years.
I was around 33 when I got married to my husband. We went on our honeymoon at the shore. Every day, I swam in the water or sat in the sand and he stayed at the guest room because of his fair skin. I love the beach though. I like to walk on the boardwalk and they usually have nice things to do there. After I got married I didn’t work but I volunteered at the Methodist Hospital of Philadelphia in the office of the therapy room. I would help the secretary there do her job.
In our neighborhood, my husband and I would take the neighborhood kids over to the park nearby. We really like kids. Some time later, I got sick and ended up in the hospital. They helped me walk again with therapy. I needed to learn how to do a lot of things again. But after all that I still needed more help and so we ended up living with my husband’s niece.
Now I’m here, ended up in this place. I made some friends. My husband likes to complain about it, but they take care of us and we get to eat anything we want every day. He could have a hamburger every day if he wanted. I like to go to activities where we do crafts and bingo. But not choir club. Singing makes you happy — which is something we should be, but I don’t like the kind of music that they play. We usually do arts and crafts like making a wreath in the activities room. You can make wreaths with anything really, leaves, ones for Christmas, those sort of things. We do flower arranging every Friday. They bring me flowers, I place them in a vase to look pretty, and the activities director puts them downstairs in the lobby. It’s a good time. Everyone does their part. Well that’s my story, everything that has happened to me up to now!