I was taking my walk around the house this morning when I noticed Kate start to get out of bed. That was about 7:15. I went to the bedroom. She sat up straight and said, “Good Morning!” She had a big smile on her face and seemed unusually alert. She sounded as though she had been awake and up for quite a while. Of course, I knew she hadn’t. I walked to her side of the bed. She reached her hand out for mine to lift her into a sitting position with her feet hanging over the side of the bed. She said, “You know it’s funny.” Then she paused as she tried to think of what she wanted to say. I wish I could remember exactly what she said, but here is the gist of it.
She began to talk about school children. She said they are really smart, and they know they are smart. She said they wanted to learn. At first, she appeared to be talking about learning in general, but she moved into her specialty as an English teacher and use of the English language. All of her teaching was primarily with high school students, but it sounded like she was probably talking about elementary school students. It was never clear. She emphasized that their parents were eager for them to learn as well. She talked a lot about her relationship with the students and her efforts to build that relationship as a means to being a more effective teacher.
After a few minutes, I decided this wasn’t going to be a short conversation. I sat down on the bed beside her and listened. The only comments I made were facilitative ones. “It sounds like they really want to learn.” “The teachers really seem to care.” “It sounds like you’re doing the right thing.” There was a clock on the bedside table. When I first looked at it, the time was 7:20. We closed the conversation when it was 8:08. My intention was to see how long she would talk, but when she slowed up a bit, I asked what she would like to do “now.” She wanted to get dressed. I suggested a shower, and she accepted that. The conversation was over.
I found three things of interest about this conversation. The first was how alert she seemed to be from the moment I entered the bedroom. That is very unusual. She displayed no sign of grogginess at all. She was cheerful and alert. The second thing is that the way she spoke didn’t sound like the way she would talk to me. I never asked, but I’m not sure she recognized me. In fact, when I led her to the bathroom, she wanted me to leave before she took off her night gown. She apparently forgot that when I offered to start the shower for her because she took off her gown and got into the shower before I walked out.
The third thing is that the nature of her conversation was very much like what I have heard her say on other occasions. One of those times she was talking with the woman who gives her a massage. That time, however, she was talking as though she were a teacher in a school in another country. I’ve always thought it might be Africa or South America because those are both places where we have visited schools. It also reminds me of several dreams she had as far back as four or five years. She occasionally would talk in her sleep. She talked like she was speaking to a class and giving instructions.
It’s now 9:10. She is out of the shower and back in bed. I think I’ll let her rest until sometime after 10:00. I expect she will be back to normal although it is hard for me to know or say what “normal” is these days.
