A couple of days before Halloween I treated my friends at an Assisted Living home to a Trick or Treating experience. Jessica, Erin and I took 8 costume-clad cuties between the ages of 9 months and 8 years to beg for candy. The residents couldn't go shopping for candy, of course, so I had already dropped off 19 bags of candy so that each resident had treats to pass out to our Treaters. We went to a couple of doors and the kids inspired giant toothy and toothless smiles. Then we went to the common room where a few residents were playing games. They clapped and complimented our lil' cuties. A very friendly gentleman wanted to see the Devil (Addison) up close, but she was too shy and stepped back. My Rainey stepped up to him, took his hand and loudly announced to Addison that "See, he's not as creepy as he looks." It was one of those moments for a mom when you can't decide if you want to make it known that she belongs to you by correcting her or pretend you didn't hear anything. I chose the latter option and moved on to the next room.
We visited Doris, my darling friend who sleeps in a chair because it is too painful to lie down. Ethel has a a 50 inch plus plasma tv in her room and acted slightly irritated that the kids were interrupting her show. Jessica led the kids in a song about a skinny witch and we all got to shout *BOO at the end of the song. Several people asked us to sing it again. That was a lot of fun.
We were told not to go down one hallway where Jack lived. He had already told the staff to be sure to lock the place up tight Halloween night because he was terrified of ghosts. When he heard we were there, he shut his room to keep us out. Right as we were about to leave he changed his mind. We went to his room, the kids got their candy from him and we sang our song. The smile on his face for those couple of minutes was magnificent! What a fun time we all had. I have big plans for all of the assisted living homes in Nicholasville next year. It cost us $25 to supply candy, and what we accomplished was 2-fold: super-happy people who don't usually get many joyful experiences and we showed 8 kids how easy it is to change someone's day.
