WorldLegacy Leadership Graduates Joy For Elderly

Last Saturday night at Wake Med and City of Oaks Nursing Home, three of us in WorldLegacy’s NC123 leadership Program created joy, laughter, curiosity, connection, giving, and love. Walking down the halls at City of Oaks, I saw patients look from their rooms happy to see and hear something new and funny. I met a 102-year-old woman and her family who invited us into the room eager to talk. My first glimpses of the nursing home staff revealed impersonal faces. Within a second we lit them up with smiles.

There were 2 tough guys at the nursing home that I thought would never smile. They were hard – I had to sing a tune (with my cohorts), to get them to budge but they couldn’t resist and beamed out 2 smiles.

We passed by one fellow’s room and introduced ourselves. He started laughing and could not stop. I could hear him all the way down the long hall as we were leaving!

At Wake Med, our voices echoed through the parking deck as we sang, “Stop in the Name of Love.” On the rehab unit, a mom invited us into the room where her teenage daughter was recovering from surgery. We joked together and had some fun. Walking down the halls in the rehab center, other patients waved from their rooms or moved to their doors to check out the excitement. Hospital staff smiled, laughed or joked with us.

As we were paying to leave the parking deck, I assumed the man in the pay booth had no idea about our unusual visit. He heard us when we first arrived singing “Stop in the Name of Love” (apropos for a parking deck) – since our voices echoed in the deck. He told us we did a pretty good job.

Our WorldLegacy Team was committed to being extreme givers for people who are not usually appreciated or given laughter.

Three of the members of my NC123 Leadership Team from WorldLegacy went to Wake Med in Raleigh, NC. WorldLegacy in Morrisville NC is a coaching company that has personal development and leadership trainings.  We created fun, laughter and love. The folks behind the front desk joked that if we came in a couple hours later we would have fit right in with all the other loonies on a Saturday night. We had fun with them and brightened their evening. Although we weren’t able to visit the children because of HIPAA laws etc., we had the opportunity to spread some fun and love with the nurses and to leave books, games and stuffed animals for the children. Undaunted, we went to visit a friend of mine who was in the hospital, but she was not up to seeing visitors, so we roamed the halls, jingling, singing and having such fun that people came out of their rooms to see what was happening. One mom had us come in and visit her daughter so she could take pictures to prove that it wasn’t a hallucination that she saw clowns and heard tambourines. We created laughter and fun with them both, and continued on our way creating smiles and fun. We then traveled to a nursing home where we met Betty who was outside enjoying the evening. We created connection and fun with her and moved on to the two gentlemen who were sitting near her. They were a bit tougher, but we managed to squeeze a smile out of them anyway – after they removed their fingers from their ears from our off key singing. We then roamed the halls waving and smiling at the nurses and patients and even were invited in to talk to some of them or they came out to see us. Our off key singing made one gentleman laugh so hard he nearly lost his teeth and we could hear him laughing uncontrollably as we continued down the hall. 

It was a wonderful experience to be so free and giving.
Tracie

We were extreme givers