oui, c'est ça

Let it be known and recorded that today is the day that the author of this blog finally, finally understood 98% of a conversation avec une dame âgée (with an elderly lady). 

Let her so be humbled that immediately following this highly successful visit, she visited with a woman and understood 30% of what she was saying. Actually 30% is too high of an estimate. 15% is more accurate. The author only responded with sympathetic head nods and a oui or c'est dommage (that's too bad) every now and again. 

I haven't really said much about what it is that I actually do for my internship. Noemi and I show up at the office of Les Petits Frères every morning and look at the schedule to see who we need to visit. We then either a) go visit someone at 11:00 or b) go have lunch at a sandwicherie (although Noemi's getting sick of baguettes so we went to McDonald's today-the only place I can get a salad with dressing I can stand) or La Papilloterie.

It's been really interesting talking to everyone. There's Madame X who lives in a retirement home, loves Americans because of WWII, invents Catholic prayers, and sings without shame. There's Madame Y who's a former math teacher, never married, and is full of opinions on everything from schooling to marriage to traveling to sports. There's Madame Z who has bones of glass and spends every day in bed to avoid falling and breaking her leg again. They're all different, but they're all the same in that they are all alone. 

That's what really makes this so hard. The whole reason we go visit them is because they don't have anyone else. We hear about their medications and diseases, we hear about their grandkids who live too far away to visit often, we hear about the places and things they used to visit and do before. A lot of them are still really happy, even though they're suffering a lot. Some of them are not so happy...and that is really hard to see. It's hard to see these old ladies without any hope! Sometimes I just want to be like, You'll see your husband again! Also, Someone has suffered your pains and aches and knows exactly what you're going through! But we were told not to explicitly talk about the church unless someone asks, so I just go on with my c'est dommage and oh la la. 

Due to such experiences, the author has hereby decided she will never get old. The author will stay 21 forever and never deteriorate to the point where she can't even walk around her own house. Also, she is determined never to be a widow. Dear future husband, you are not allowed to die before me and leave me alone.

Just saying.