This Is Me

[pensnest]

I feel like a dishcloth that has been wrung out. Particularly strenuous Fitness Yoga this week.

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I'm sitting here trying not to let tears trickle down my cheeks because of this post. Happy tears, definitely. Item #3 nearly made me bawl, but there are plenty more tearjerkers in there. #23 is the cutest thing I've seen today (so far).
*sniff*

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We had a go yesterday at persuading FIL to have another driving assessment. Beast was very careful to say, It's Your Choice (but we really really think you should), but FIL is very stubborn indeed. And, I dare say, feels that he does not want to be without his car. We understand this, but there are alternatives. We will keep pushing. It's his 95th birthday this week, but he seems to feel that since the RAF taught him to drive during WWII, he's fine.

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I haven't posted about This Is Me.

Two of the members of my chorus work for The Hamlet Centre, which works with children who have disabilities of various kinds. Our chorus generally does a mini-concert for them in December (during the day, so only about a dozen of us can go), but we have recently been working with them on a bigger project: they are making a video about The Hamlet Centre and what they do, with This Is Me (from The Greatest Showman) as the soundtrack, and we learned the song and recorded it for them a few weeks ago.

Last Sunday, we went to the Centre to participate in the visual part of the video. There was a great crowd there of the HC children, their families, and staff members. We sang to them, then we all did This Is Me together—the families were singing and/or signing the song with us. Lastly, the focus turned to one of the kids who is (I think) the main person to be featured in the video. He was not going to come into the room with us—too many people, way too much noise, even though everyone did their best to be quiet, but the corridor wall is part glass, so he could see us through the glass. He waved hello, we sang the song very softly and he signed it, absolutely beaming. I'm pretty sure that is going to be the best bit of the video. It was lovely.

It's due to be released on 1st December. A link will certainly follow!

Comments

[chalcopyrite]

That's lovely about the Hamlet Centre. I look forward to seeing the video!

[pensnest]

Me too! :-D

[dine]

good luck iwth the FIL - that's the hardest thing! my dad listened to his doctor and stopped driving, but while mom is aware she should, and readily discusses options (other than having my sister take her) for getting around, she's so far unwilling to stop driving herself. and I worry because she was never a *good* driver, and who knows what could happen

This Is Me sounds like a great project - I do look forward to seeing it once the finished product is available.

[pensnest]

Yeah, it's going to be hard. My MIL decided on her own to give up driving, which was a very real sacrifice, but it was such a relief! (I'd been driven by her... once...)

I'm very much looking forward to seeing the eventual video.

[turps]

Oh man, that post you linked to. I have something in my eye. Both eyes. And it seemed to happen over and over.

This Is Me sounds fantastic. I'm looking forward to seeing the finished product.

[pensnest]

Yes, quite a tear-filled post, I thought!

Singing Christmas songs at the Hamlet is always interesting. Someone will get up and dance, or decide to hug a chorus member's legs. The year we went to the Young Adult Hamlet Centre, we had a snowball war (with little balls of fluff).

[wenchpixie]

There was a similar issue to your FiL with one of my great aunts. She took being told by her doctor, in a way she wouldn't from family, but it was still very hard.


The Hamlet Centre, and what you did, sounds wonderful.

[pensnest]

I wonder if the doctor would bit the awful bullet for us? Hmm. I mean, I have sympathy, a car is Independence in a big way - but everywhere he goes by car he could go by mobility scooter and be less of a hazard in the world. Ah well.

It was heart-warming.

[frausorge]

That video sounds like an awesome project. Looking forward to getting to see it!

And I strongly sympathize with the difficulty of persuading someone to stop driving. It's absolutely a loss of independence and yet there does come a point where it has to happen.

[sylvaine]

Oof, good luck with your FIL. Giving up that kind of independence is so hard but all too necessary sometimes.

[ephemera]

This is me sounds like such a fab project!