Natural Life

A 93-year-old lady whose name is Haru (it means 'spring' in Japanese) visited my clinic. She has dementia, hearing loss, and her legs are very weak. She could answer my questions if I asked loudly at her ear and she could do what I told her to do like sitting on a chair or opening eyes widely.
Maybe the corridor of my small clinic was a kind of too long for her to walk. She was walking very very slowly, and then she stopped. When I saw where she looked, there were flowers I arranged along the corridor. The staff of her nursing home said 'Haru-san, you used to like flowers very much.'
When at last she sat on a sofa at the waiting room, I showed these flowers to her. It was the first time that she spread her hands by herself, held the vase in her arms, and said 'What a gentle color.. what a gentle color..'
Beautiful pink roses and 'dusty miller' leaves from my garden could touch her heart. Haru-san's birthday is of course in spring. I think her parents were very pleased with a birth of a pretty girl 93 years ago.