A sign at our local library advertised a workshop called “Gray for a Day.” It sounded intriguing until the presenter promised to age us. I told her I didn’t need any aging, thank you. But after giving us statistics on age-related sensory and mobility decline, she handed us all packets and proceeded to make us old.

We stuffed cotton balls in our ears, wore sunglasses that were blacked out except for quarter-sized holes in the middle, and dropped popcorn kernels into our shoes. As if that weren’t enough, we taped our knuckles, pulled on plastic gloves, and slid a popsicle stick up one finger on each hand.

Once I was sufficiently hindered, she handed me a scarf and asked me to tie it around my neck to make it pretty. “I can’t do that under the best of circumstances,” I said, so she gave me a deck of cards and told me to shuffle them. Other attendees were instructed to divide pills into dispensers and similar activities requiring small motor skills. Then she passed out extra-large marshmallows and had us try to converse while our mouths were stuffed.

Wow! What an eye opener.

I thought I understood what my parents and mother-in-law faced each day, but the restrictions placed on me by this exercise made me realize I had no clue.

If you find yourself irritated or impatient with your love one as I sometimes did, please remember they’re operating in a different world under limitations we may not comprehend. Be patient, speak slowly, don’t hurry. I was gray for a day, but they’ll be gray for the rest of their lives.

So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets. Matthew 7:12 NIV

Tracy Crump dispenses hope in the award-winning Health, Healing, and Wholeness: Devotions of Hope in the Midst of Illness (CrossLink Publishing, 2021). A former intensive care nurse, she cared for her parents and her mother-in-law and understands both the burdens and joys of caregiving. Her devotions have been featured in Guideposts books, The Upper Room, and many other publications, and she has contributed 22 stories to Chicken Soup for the Soul® books. She also conducts writing workshops, freelance edits, and proofreads for Farmers’ Almanac. But her most important job is Grandma to five completely unspoiled grandchildren.