Like everyone else, Joan has good days and bad days. I arrived at the Mansion one day last week and found that Joan was having a bad day. A cardinal rule of volunteering in hospice or assisted care is that you don’t try to cheer people up, you accept them right where they are.

Joan has a mischievous sense of humor and I find that she is sometimes sad because she is sometimes bored, her distraction and memory loss can make i difficult for her to do many of the things other people do.

She does love to be photographed, so I did propose a deal. I had a new portrait lens with me – I took this photo with it. I told Joan I would take her photo, but only if she could smile. Generally, I don’t take pictures of sad or angry people, it doesn’t make for a good portrait.

Joan seem surprised at first, and then said, “who? me?” Yes, I said, you. Smile at my bald spot. And she did. Joan’s smile can light up a room. The bald spot thing also works for the refugee kids.