Personal Narrative: Dealing With Elderly People

I was apprehensive choosing this because I somewhat knew I will be dealing with elderly people and thus I am going to be asked questions or talked to for more than 5 minutes. I also expected the session to be fast paced and for some reason with music blasting indiscriminately across the whole pool.
When I arrived at the site on Friday afternoon after physical therapy myself, I felt ready to give some therapy to someone else for a change although still a little fearful that I might snap someone’s wrist in the wrong direction after a particularly loud base during a song.
When I walked inside the building I was greeted by a friendly staff who promptly pointed me at the group sitting twenty feet away. I walked over and introduced myself as
My tasks were to stretch and go through the biomechanical motions of her legs and feet for example bending the leg, rotating the foot etc.… After about 15-20 minutes we were done.
Afterwards I went over to a group that was working with a man who had severe multiple sclerosis and took over because they didn’t have the strength. His legs were very stiff and it took a bit of physical effort to bend them. His wrists were also affected but not as much. He had the most severe case of multiple sclerosis out of everyone. Net mentioned he doesn’t like getting help going down the stairs leading into the water and I couldn’t blame him just mentally placing myself in his shoes I wouldn’t like anyone looking at me let alone helping me and worse yet people taking pity on me.
After the session we all gathered in a nearby empty room to eat and drink. These people were friendly and genuinely nice a quality not many have. Although I didn’t talk to any individual one of them for long except Net, I got to take in all of their conversations home with me. It made me think why they don’t employ capable people to work with these individuals because random volunteers are not very dependable and some might not be capable moving a 200 pound person’s legs or arms into various positions and then maintaining them under tension. These people shouldn’t depend on volunteers but instead on professionals. Walking away I felt sympathetic towards their situation
On the drive home I thought about what motivates these people to go there? Was it boredom at home or the need for achievement, to prove to yourself and others that multiple sclerosis won’t cripple you? It could also have been the need for affiliation. The people there knew each other on first name basis and one another’s life stories. They planned birthday surprises for one another and had personal jokes between each other that an outsider wouldn’t understand. People suffering the same are naturally drawn together and form a community. Maybe life outside this little group isn’t quite the same, after all to what extent can another person that has no idea what you’re going through understand you and connect with you or even treat you the same as anyone else. Maybe the need for social acceptance and support is enough incentives to motivate these characters to go