Wednesday's Child

Do you remember this nursery rhyme?

Monday's child is fair of face,
Tuesday's child is full of grace,
Wednesday's child is full of woe,
Thursday's child has far to go,
Friday's child is loving and giving,
Saturday's child must work for a living,
But the child that's born on the Sabbath day,
Is fair and wise and good and gay.

Last night before I fell asleep, I thought, "Tomorrow is Wednesday."  And then the verse, "Wednesday's child is full of woe" popped into my head.  As a child born on Wednesday, I used to feel bad about being full of woe, in other words, sad.  It's probably more appropriate to say I felt sad about being a Wednesday's child.  The poem was written to teach children the days of the week.  I guess you could say that Saturday and Wednesday's children got the short end of the shaft on personality.  😉

I tend to get serious, sometimes even sad in my writings.  For the most part I am a calm, quite fulfilled, positive thinking person.  But as you have probably already gathered if you have read my blog for any length of time, I bare-it-all at times, including my sad thoughts.  So maybe the title "full of woe" is appropriate.  

Last fall, one of our neighbors (in her 50's) had a massive stroke.  In fact when we left for the winter, she had been in rehab facility for months.  Upon our return to our place, we heard that she was back living in our building.  She has to wear a helmet as part of her skull was taken out to release pressure and it has not been replaced.  Today, another neighbor had her 91st birthday and treated us during our coffee hour.  So the lady who is recovering from her stroke came too. Now, if anyone had a reason to be full of woe, it's her!  She is basically relearning all the skills that we adults take for granted.  Reading, remembering details, playing an instrument, speaking the appropriate words, and baking.  Because she is the next-door neighbor to the birthday lady and loves her dearly, she brought down her flute that she is re-learning to play.  Her therapist has told her that playing the flute will help her right arm and shoulder become stronger.

As she began playing her flute, I found myself thinking of her as a seven year old girl just learning the flute.  But, with a couple of false starts, we could recognize song, "Happy Birthday" and sing along hesitantly.  She was proud to complete the song and then told us that she had only been playing the flute about 3 years before her stroke and had played in concerts and recitals.  Was she full of woe about re-learning to play an instrument that she had perfected just a few years ago?  No, the smile on her face after her recital for us was one of triumph!  As she was telling us of her occupational therapist coming to her place to help her bake cookies, she couldn't remember the names of some of the ingredients.  This afternoon, I happened to see her leaving her apartment.  I asked, "How did your baking go today?"  She beamed and said, "I just left some cookies (for birthday lady) on her door."  

What a lesson in perseverance and positive-thinking I learned today, Wednesday.  Wednesday's child was an adult lady recovering from a stroke.  Wednesday, a day full of woe.....NOT!