When an old lady died in the geriatric ward of a small hospital near Dundee, Scotland, it was believed that she had nothing left of value. Later, when the nurses were going through her meager possessions, they found this poem.

It’s quality and content so impressed the staff that copies were made and distributed to every nurse in the hospital.

One nurse took her copy to Ireland. The old lady’s sole bequest to posterity has since appeared in the Christmas edition of the News Magazine of the North Ireland Association for Mental Health. A slide presentation has also been made based on her simple, but eloquent, poem. And this little old Scottish lady, with nothing left to give to the world, is now the author of this “anonymous” poem winging across the Internet.

Remember this poem when you next meet an elderly person who you might brush aside without looking at the young soul within … we will one day be there, too!