Cheer Up a Friend

By D. A. Woodliff

Sometimes a friend or family member is ill or has had an operation and must stay home in bed. Time goes slowly for anyone who must remain in bed. If that person may have visitors, plan to make frequent, short visits and keep him up-to-date on what is happening at school and church. If possible, telephone him too.

There are also other things you can do to help time pass more quickly for a bedridden friend. Here are just a few ideas.

Daily Packages In gaily-colored paper, wrap several small inexpensive gifts—a small toy, a book, a bookmark, crayons, or something you have made yourself—and place them in an old Easter basket trimmed with rickrack and a bright ribbon. On each package write a day of the week so that your friend can open one package each day.

Human “Bookmobile” Books are one of the best gifts for someone confined to bed. Offer to go to the library for your friend on a regular basis until he is up and about again.

Puzzles You can make a lot of puzzles to keep your friend happy and busy. Simply glue a picture from a magazine, a road map, a poster, or a label from a can of soup onto lightweight cardboard. When the glue has dried, cut the picture into various shapes. Put each puzzle into a separate container.

Riddle Game Write several riddles and put each one on a separate paper. Write each answer on separate pieces of paper of another color. Number each riddle/answer and fold each paper so that only its number can be seen. Put all the riddles into one envelope and all the answers into another envelope. Give the envelopes to your friend with instructions to try to answer all the riddles before reading the answers.

Secret Code Assign a symbol to each letter of the alphabet, and make a copy of these symbols for your ill friend and one for yourself. For example, your code may look like this:

Each day leave a note written in code with your friend to work out.

New Hobby Make your friend a how-to kit. Find a library book or buy an inexpensive paperback book on origami, macrame, games, crafts, stamps, or whatever. Put the book and a few of the supplies needed into the kit.

Illustrated by Shauna Mooney