Location: Lakeview Nursing and Rehabilitation Center
Date: Monday, April 15, 2013; 6:15-7:45 pm
I had arrived early and while in
the old days I would have gone to a coffee shop and waited till the program
started, I wanted to chat with some of the residents. I came in to find my buddy Emma was already
settling in for Bingo night. I asked
about her daughter’s visit, the reason why she had missed out on ‘Get Crafty’ this month and she said
while her daughter lived in St. Louis, she had a traveling job which allowed
her to visit often. She said that her
daughter did the same work as Emma from years ago, though Emma had not traveled as much. I suspect Emma’s
daughter travels more to see Emma, than for the job.
She then asked if I traveled for my job and I said not as much. The room was filling up and I asked Emma if I
could move her chair a bit so as to allow one more person to fit in. “Oh,
that’s nice”, she said in her usual polite way. I told her that she better win and also
mentioned it to Jim, the caller. As much
as I liked playing Bingo with Emma, that was not the reason that I was
there. The dogs had arrived and it was
time for ‘Pet Therapy’.
 |
| Hey Stella... |
Sam and Jess were there with
Shane and Chloe. Some of the other dogs
were named Stella and Ramon, who was with Sallie, whom I had met at ‘What’s The Word’. Since I was a veteran of this program, Jess
partnered me with Stella and her owner Jaime.
Stella is an adorable Portuguese water dog, same as the ‘First Dog of US’. Jaime said she has had Stella, who is almost
3 years old, since she was 3 months. Stella
is one of the most well behaved dogs to have attended this program. Not only was she friendly throughout the
evening, she seemed almost…interested.
Whenever we were with a resident, she would sit on her hind legs and
listen to rest of us converse. I am sure
if she could talk, she would have participated!
We started on the 3rd
floor and had no luck initially. Most of
the residents were either asleep or not interested in seeing us. Then we found a room which had two
ladies. They loved Stella and one of
them talked about having a collie for a pet.
I told her that there was a part collie, Chloe, who would be visiting
soon. Speaking of Chloe, we found her in
Hannah’s room with Shane, Sam and Jess.
Hannah is always keen on having guests over and as usual, pulled out the
photograph of her beloved cat, Johnny B, and showed it to everyone. During my every visit to Lakeview for this program, there is at least one resident
who stands apart and today that was a lady by the name of Pamella.
Sallie, Ramon and another
volunteer, Shilpa, were already in Pamella’s room when we entered. Of all the residents that I have met at
Lakeview Nursing, Pamella is the most flamboyant. We came in to a conversation where she was
saying that Mexican men treated their women poorly. Then we learned that she has traveled around the world and claims to be on her 4th
passport. She started with her travels
in South America and said that she enjoyed travelling in Bolivia and Argentina,
whereas found Peru less sophisticated than these two countries. She said that she had spent time in Peru with
natives who did not speak any known language.
Looked like Pamella had been quite an adventurer and by this stage all
of us, dogs and humans, were captivated.
.JPG) |
| Ramon to Shane: "Mind if I ask your sister Chloe out?" |
Besides South America, she had
also traveled extensively in Europe, and speaks French fluently. She talked about the difference between
Northern and Southern Italy, especially in the food, claiming that the Northern
Italian food is the best. She has had an
interesting life, having worked on private boats - carrying 2-3 passengers - as
a crewman as well as a gourmet chef. She
loves dogs and has owned several in the past.
She said that with one of them, named Sadie, she went on to do a
skydive. Now, I have seen people do some
ridiculous things doing skydiving, but this seemed quite bizarre. I asked if the dog was wearing glasses to
protect against the wind, and apparently she was. Pamella said that due to her travel bug, she was
fed up of being in the place and once she gets out, she was going to
Trinidad. I asked what she was going to
do there, she said “Smoke”. Okay then.
I asked how long was she going to stay in Lakeview Nursing and she had
no idea. She said she was dying for a
smoke right then and asked if we could go out with her so that she could
smoke. I wasn't too keen on this and
sure enough, the nurses told me that she couldn't go out without permission. When I conveyed this to her, she said that
this place was worse than prison and let loose a long tirade. She said that she calls it as she sees it and
we had guessed that.
Throughout our stay with
Pamella, Stella and Ramon had stayed quiet and out of the
way. Time was almost up, but we did stop
for a visit with Gloria and Jerry, both of whom love dogs. As is the case with all dogs, Stella loved
Jerry and after several treats from him, we came down and Jaime and Stella left. I chatted with Sam and Jess before leaving
and Jess asked if I would mind being back-up leader for the program, just in
case they are unavailable. I said yes
without hesitation and Jess was pleased about that. It had been a very interesting evening,
especially with Pamella. I do not know how much of what she said is
true, but it had kept us entertained to the extent that we did not even have
time to visit the 2nd floor. But
there had been no complaints, least of all from Stella and Ramon. Stella was incredible. I can still picture her, sitting on hind
legs, almost nodding as people talked amongst themselves.
*All the client's names have been changed in order to respect their privacy
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