MarJean

  
   "Wanna hear a joke?" a voice from the back seat said.
   "Sure," I replied.
    "A man was driving along with some penguins in the back seat. A cop pulled him over and said to him,'Sir You need to take those penguins to the zoo!' The man said, 'OK' and then drove away. A few days later the cop saw the same man with the penguins in the back seat. The cop pulled him over again and said, 'I thought I told you to take those penguins to the zoo!' 'I did,' the man said 'And today we're going to the movies.'" I started to chuckle and I heard a cackling laugh from the back seat. "Heard that one from an 80 year old man," the voice said. I smiled. It was one of the best jokes I'd ever heard.
   The voice in the back seat belonged to MarJean. She is an elderly woman who joined the Church a month or so ago. Since we go past where she lives on our way to Sunday meeting we stop and pick her up.
   She is an absolute delight to be around. She is a very positive person. She told us once that when she is in pain and has trouble getting out of bed, she likes to sing "Oh What a Beautiful Morning!". It helps get her mind off her pain and then she gets out of bed. She also has a fun sense of humour. Once in awhile she will tell us a joke ("I only tell clean ones") or sings us a song on the way to church.
   I'm also told that she is artistic. One Sunday she came to Meeting wearing a butterfly pin that she had painted herself. C went with the Missionaries to visit her once and told me that she had pictures on the wall that she had painted herself. What makes this quite an accomplishment is that her hands are crippled from arthritis. If you looked at them you wouldn't think she could paint, but she does.
  On Ward Conference Sunday MarJean and I were waiting for people to leave after a meeting. MarJean uses a walker and it is easier for her to maneuver it when there are not a lot of people around. The Stake President was there and I wanted him to meet Marjean. I know that the Stake President likes to meet the new people who join the Church and I thought MarJean would like to meet him. He came over to greet her and the first thing she said was, "We have the same hands!" I winced inside. The Stake President is maybe ten years older than I and obviously has rheumatoid arthritis. It's one of those things you can't help but notice. It's obvious, but you don't mention it so that you aren't being offensive or rude.  "So we do," he said.
"I don't let it stop me," Marjean continued, "I can still hold a paint brush." That's Marjean.
  On Easter Sunday, we picked her up. I had asked C to get her an Easter corsage. I remembered that was a tradition on Easter at one time and thought she might like it. She cried a little when I presented the box to her. The last time she'd had a corsage was when she went to a dance in high school. She proudly wore it at church and told us that she planned to keep it on the rest of the day. It made me happy to give that to her. That's like her as well. She is grateful for the smallest things.
   I sometimes wish that that they had a version of Big Brothers/Big Sisters for older people. Younger people could "adopt" an elderly person. I adopt a whole bunch of them. I'd adopt MarJean. She's lived in St. Paul all her life and I bet she'd have some really good tales to tell.
   MarJean recently had surgery and has not been able to come to Meeting. I miss her, but I hear she is doing well and is on the mend. Hopefully I'll get to hear her cackling laugh and some new jokes soon.