WHAT YOU DO

When people ask you what you do, it often means for a living. I was a stay at home mom for many years, fixing meals, doing laundry, cleaning up messes, organizing, paying bills, calming tempers, reading stories. When I needed to get a job a few years ago, those were my qualifications. Rather than go to college for years to start a new career (at 59), I took a 5 week course to help me get a Nurse Assistant certification. Working in a home was more my style than at a care center or hospital, so my first and only job is here at Lexi's. She is bed bound with MS, legs amputated, one arm useless from a stroke. A brilliant mind, a good case of OCD, and only 51 years old, Lexi keeps me hopping, ordering me around to do some of the many things she would do for herself if she could. I can't imagine the frustration, and admire her attitude and independence. She stays alone except for the few hours a day that I or another CNA are there, or occasional friends or family drop by. You go Girl!

SOMETHING YELLOW

I work as a CNA for Lexi, who is bed-bound with MS at the young age of 50. One of her aides painted this picture, symbolic in several ways. Lexi loves the sunny color yellow. Though her legs are amputated, she continues her climb to improve herself, and her relationships with family, friends, and Heavenly Father. She looks forward with patience and faith to her 'next life', when her body will be restored to wholeness, and she can cook and sing, play the guitar and coach softball, run and swim.