How those old toys found brand new life, being played by your mother, helping her to stay active in the hands, and in the, mind too…translated…
As my children left home one by one, I’d started, wavering on whether to throw away the toys that they’d played with in childhood or not. Keeping them, they’re useless, taking up space, gathering dusts; tossing them out, what if, one day, they wanted to reminisce, where will they go, to find their, old days of play back?
It seemed that there are the pros AND cons of keeping and throwing, I’d kept, stalling these toys, and just, never got the opportunity, to play with them with my own children again, but I’d found my own mother, slowly, growing, older. Gone back to visit my mother, and I’d found, that there isn’t much she can do in her elderly time, there’s nothing, but time that’s, accumulated in her life, seeing how she’d, sat and stared into the walls, losing focus in her, eyes, getting stressed out with nothing to do, I’d contemplated about how to change that for her.
How do I get my mother, to exercise her mind, to kill her time? As I was wrecking my brains for the means to interact with her, suddenly, the toys my children had played with when they were little surfaced to mind, or maybe, they will be good, to help my mother pass the time, to ease her, loneliness.
I’d started, moving the old toys I have at my home to my mother’s home. At first, my mother, wasn’t keen on the idea, and I’d, started, begging and pleading, slowly, I got her to, play with them, later, I saw my mother, looking really focused, as she’d pulled out the Jenga blocks, or how she was, focused, as she’d tried to, put the puzzle pieces together , I’d started worrying, that I didn’t have enough of a variety of games prepared for her, and forced myself to brainstorm, what sorts of a toy my mother may enjoy playing with? What sort of a puzzle can help her relieve her boredom?
Everybody said that elderly are like children, with the coming of age, the thoughts, the temperaments, the behaviors will get returned, back to, the, childhood states, like children, stubborn, and full of creativity. I’d laughed off the thought as I’d heard it from before, never imagined I would one day, accompany my mother through her second childhood, with the toys that my children no longer, played with. And, these toys became, the means of connecting me and my mother in interacting, and, the feelings were not quite the same, as I’d, played with my children compared to how I’m playing with my mother using the toys.
like this…photo from online
My priority had been to accompany my children as they grow up, at the time, I’d thought on how I can give my children a better future, time flew quickly by, and now, my children are all grown, and my parents are, aging, became more and more, reliant on those around them, and right now, I wanted to be their companion, as they grow old, gracefully, to not have, any, regrets.
I’d turned my head, saw my mother, in that pile of toys, with her concentration, and that grin from ear to ear. I’d felt glad, secretively, that I’d not, thrown these toys of my children’s, out, which gave me this time, to accompany her.
And so, this is how the elderly will, return, back to, their, childhood, and, it’s now the children’s turns, to accompany their own aging parents, and this woman gave brand new life to the old toys that her children outgrew, and she got to enjoy some quality time playing with the toys with her own mother.
The Ivory Tower of My Mind 