On Tuesday my class and I were all feeling super nervous. We were about to hop on the bus
to Dixon house. We all had our books in hand as we started leaving the school. The bus was
buzzing with excitement and anxiousness. We arrived at the park and we did a quick
2-minute walk over to the elderly home. We waited for a while, all feeling nervous. We
helped carry in some food and we went inside. Our first glimpse was much more different
than we expected. There were 2 rows of elderly people each doing different things. Some
were sleeping and some were talking. There was even one playing with a pop it. We all lined
up at the front and Mequa introduced us. We then got told to go around and start reading
to some people.
It took a while to kinda get comfortable but I started reading to one lady. I was reading to her but she seemed more focused on someone else so I left and found someone else. The next woman's name was Pauleen and she was super sweet! I read my book to her and we finished and just started talking. I asked her lots of questions like her favorite hobby and stuff. I learnt quite a lot from her. The sweetest bit was that when I was reading I saw her crying happy tears and I nearly cried, myself. After we talked for quite a while, I passed her onto Ellie. I walked around for a little and then read to someone else. I kept going around and reading to people and each person left tears in my eyes.
We read for a while and then got told we could come up and eat food. I was halfway
through my book so I continued to read and then talked for a bit. After a while, I went to
eat, which I thought was going to be my favorite part but I loved reading to them and didn’t
want to stop. Me and my friends talked for a little bit then my teacher said we could read
to one last person. I got up and wandered around for a little while and then found one lady.
I started reading to her and then she told me she has had that book read to her already,
because me and my friends swapped books. We then talked for a while and had a good
conversation. All of a sudden Calais went in front of everyone and thanked them all. I was
super sad that we had to leave and as I walked out I thanked everyone so much. We walked
down the corridor and left, all feeling kinda sad. We all enjoyed it so much and would all
definitely go back. I had such a good time visiting and made some good memories. My
highlight of that was when one lady started crying because she was so happy and all of
their old stories they told me about. I didn’t dislike anything because it was all so great.
I learned not to take things like that for granted and to treasure memories you make,
because you never know when you or someone has to go be taken care of by someone else
because they are incapable of doing so themselves.
