Gave up trying to sleep...will be "paying the piper" later today! WARNING...the following is just ramblings....the isolation monster is lurking and I just need to connect/talk a bit....containing no advice; no information; no suggestions; no ideas on documentation etc,etc. It may be worthwhile to skip to the next posting! Having given fair warning......I can't avoid being troubled/baffled by K. (the 50 yr. old resident). Thinking, about how we first connected and how much she's been able to teach me about herself. When I was first introduced to her (a year ago), she was slumped in a chair in the living room, with a blank stare, and I was told about how much she enjoyed watching TV. I have since learned that she does LOVE old musicals on TV but not much else. She was the "quiet" one of the four residents. I now think that she was the quiet one for a variety of reasons...her medical condition..(her brain sometimes does not make a connection to her mouth &/or other parts of her body); the side-affects of her medications...(causes a drunken appearance and demeaner in walking and talking when she can, so she falls a lot); learned behavior in the institutions....(stay out of trouble); attempts to communicate get nowhere and are too frustrating....(why bother). There's probably much more that I haven't identified yet. After I got my feet wet in the job, I started turning off the TV and turning on our local Folk station. The first day I had the radio on, I noticed a small reaction in K.'s body language. Around the same time, L. had already shown interest in music. The first time I brought in my guitar, K. was having a bad day with balance and "behaviors". I brought L. and my guitar into another area of the house (another staff had been working with K.)and when I took the guitar out of its case, K. stood up right away and lurched toward myself and L. with a look in her eyes that, (having read her chart) I took to mean that myself and my guitar were about to be attacked. I decided to try to hold my ground and mentally picked a place to keep the guitar safe. K., as it turned out, only wanted to be next to the guitar,.. almost sitting on it...and me. I have since learned from her, how much determination, patience and concentration it takes for her to do anything (the look in her eyes turned out to be utter, sheer WILL and determination to MAKE her body work). Her look is the image I see when I hear things like "pushing through the handicap". She was in the midst of one of her "episodes" and could not talk....so she held her arms out in a position that made it clear to me that she knew how to hold a guitar...so I placed it in her lap between her arms... and was right, risky....but right. It was the first time I saw her smile in her eyes. In the midst of an "episode", holding the guitar, I heard her sing/shout.."morning,..land,....sisters. (Had I known then that Mudcats existed, I would have come home and checked the database!) The next day it dawned on me that she had been trying to sing "If I had a Hammer". We have, since then, identified a bunch of songs that we have in common. Anyway, today (No, yesterday) she taught me another important lesson. She had been sent home from her day program early because she was having an "episode" and had been sick as well. I was cooking in the kitchen and mumble/singing "Amen". I am, by now,used to her "lurching" toward me, which she did. She managed to do the first verse to Amen, which shocked me. I asked her where she learned the song and got no response, just continued the chorus and that was that...supper time, chores, giving her medications and bedtime. Three hours after I had asked the question, as I was making sure she was comfortable in bed for the night, she quietly said "Virginia". No other communication. K. is often typed as talking nonsense, or making no sense. She taught me tonight, to remember every unanswered question I ask her, because a week or so from now, she may be able to answer and it certainly won't be "nonsense".