House Calls: Story 13

Anna Maria's First House Call

Wildman and Anna Maria

In Elkton, Virginia, John Glick and Terra, his daughter, and a lot of teenagers go clowning at two nursing homes every second Saturday of the month. Recently, we were lucky enough to have Grant from South Africa and his girlfriend, who was visiting Kevyn Burn, come along. One nursing home was clearly for the very rich and one was for the not-so-rich. In both nursing homes, we brought music. Music is magic anywhere you bring it. John has a museum of instruments, but this time he brought his squeezebox, his organetto, I think it is called, which is like an accordion. Jessie is a friend of Terra, and Jessie’s sister was home from college and had never clowned before. We played a lot of music and some of the people got up to dance. It was really great.

Elisa and Anna Maria

But the thing that was really different this time was that we brought our baby, Anna Maria. There are always plusses and minuses to bringing a baby, and Elisa [her mother] worries sometimes that she will catch something. But Anna Maria is a little ox. I’ve never seen an infant that is as strong as she is. I discovered what the absolute 100% best clown prop is in the world, better than even a puppy, and that is a baby. This baby stirred the reaction from some of the very old residents. And even the nurses, who were really great nurses — they get paid nothing, but they do so much — remarked how amazing it was to get some of the reactions from having the baby. And of course, Elisa let some of the residents hold Anna Maria, and Anna Maria was just spectacular. She didn’t squirm, didn’t cry, it was as if her Mama was holding her. Some of the older residents, three women there, actually had dolls that they held as if they were infants. We opened up a dialogue with them about their "baby," of course; you know how people like to talk about what’s important to them. And these were clearly important to them. One man who held Anna Maria was such a gentle person. You never know if what they say is true or not, but he said he had no grandchildren or anything, and when he went to hold Anna Maria, he knew exactly what to do. I would not trade anything for the light that came onto his face.

Anna Maria Clowning

You know, when it comes to nursing homes, whether you are rich or poor does not determine the quality of your stay there. It’s really the people. They really had good people. They didn’t have as many fresh-cut flowers and that kind of thing, but these people were really happy. When we first entered there, we were just kind of feeling it out, if someone had illnesses there were certain indications on the door, so we were just getting a feel for that so we wouldn’t subject Anna Maria to anything. This one woman jumped out of bed, jumped out of bed, and came running down the hallway, "A baby! Baby! Look at the baby!" And of course, her infectiousness got the residents up and, wow, we really had a good time. They start talking about their families. You really get some spectacular stories. You get the feeling that they are telling tales they haven’t told in a long time and that they so enjoy telling.