318. Never Alone (Part 2)
Agnes and I wrote a song together in the nursing home where I worked. The words were these:
—
I’m never really alone, I’m never really alone.
There’s always somebody here, and I’m never really alone.
—
Sometimes I feel really lonely,
Sometimes I feel really left.
Sometimes I feel so very sad—
Then I remember, I remember that
—
I’m never really alone, I’m never really alone.
There’s always somebody here, and I’m never really alone.
—
I jumped to a conclusion with this song. And my conclusion was that Agnes felt left because she had been left in the nursing home. She and I never talked about it. I just believed that that was the reason she felt so alone.
On a summer vacation to Cuddyhunk Island, the friend I was visiting and I accompanied a woman in her 90’s on a boat to the mainland. She was not feeling well and her family thought she needed to be in a hospital. As we passed time I told her some of my stories and told her about Agnes and sang the song for her.
When I came to the line “sometimes I feel really left,” this woman took my arm just as Agnes had done and said, “Oh yes—that’s so true.” I finished the song and asked her to tell me about the truth of it. She said, “I am constantly feeling left as my friends and family members die and leave me.” I told her about my assumption and she said, “Oh no—I feel sure that that woman—was her name Agnes?—yes, I feel sure that Agnes was tired of saying goodbye to those she knew and loved and sometimes she felt alone and left.”
