When Wanda B. Goines was 92 years old, she became internet famous by writing a poem about aging that is so honest and poignant that it’s making millions of people all over the world emotional. The title of the poem is “The Gift Wrap and The Jewel” and it went viral when it was shared on Facebook by her caregiver, Kathryn Clausnitzer Wilson, who filmed Wanda reciting the poem. As Wanda was reciting the poem, she was stoic and calm, but when she got to the end, she herself started to get emotional when she mentioned glorifying God for all eternity.
When I was a teenager, I worked as a nurse’s aide at a small rural hospital. It was a job with a lot of responsibility and looking back, I’m surprised I was up for the task. I just did my best and I really grew to love my patients, most of whom were elderly people from the town’s nursing home. I can remember one of the doctors telling me at the time that my compassion for my patients was important because “If we live long enough, we’ll all end up in as much need as they are.” That doctor didn’t live long enough to get that old. He had a car accident and suffered brain damage.
My doctor friend spent his last five years in a nursing home himself. He wasn’t a vegetable. He could walk and speak some, but his mind was gone. He died before he was 50 years old. I’ve always remembered him telling me that. To 16-year-old me, being old seemed so far away, but it’s not that far away for any of us, really. We grow older in the blink of an eye, and I’m sure in her mind, Wanda is still a young girl. I know I am. Here’s the text of her poem.
Wanda’s words are rooted in not just her advanced age, but also a rich experience in living. She has eight children of her own and is a great-grandmother as well as a grandmother. In her lifetime, she’s been an artist and a calligrapher. Since the video was shared on Facebook, it’s been viewed more than five million times. The YouTube video has been viewed more than 3.5 million times. Enjoy.