Movie Night

Location: H.O.M.E. – Pat Crowley House

Date: Saturday, January 25, 2014; 5:30-9:00 pm

Wilson and I left Imperial and picked up Amanda, who would be joining us for the next adventure, which was a movie night with my favorite residents of Pat Crowley House.  Well, it was really me joining them for this adventure, since it would be my first time seeing a movie there.  I had not been back since the Holiday Party and was excited to see Andrew, Cynthia, Jane and the others.  Wilson said that they have been having bed bug problems and so for part of the evening we may be helping carry some of their stuff downstairs into the basement.  This was in preparation for the exterminators who would be coming next week.  As we walked in, everyone was surprised by our unexpected visit, not knowing that Wilson had scheduled a movie night.  They were however happy for the company and there is something very pleasant about surprise visit. I for one was glad to see that on their faces. 

Life lessons on the walls of Pat Crowley

Besides the residents, we were greeted by Wheezy, who is the RA Cristina’s dog.  The doggie seemed to like me a lot and was enjoying receiving belly scratches.  Cristina was showing everyone her vacation pictures from Europe, and that had Andrew, Cynthia and Jane captivated.  I asked Andrew if he had ever been to Europe and he said no, though he was almost deployed there during World War II.  Cynthia said that she had been to Rome a long long time ago and had visited the famous fountain in the city.  Legend has it that anyone who throws a penny in it returns back some day.  40 years later, Cynthia was still waiting.  I learned that Annabelle was in the hospital with lung problems and everyone was very worried about her.  Andrew said that they are praying that she makes it back soon and it was sweet to see them caring about each other.  Coupled with the stress of having bed bugs, this was really a tough time for all of them.  It seems that Annabelle had gone outside in the cold without any socks and that had led to this problem.  Cynthia said that she didn’t have $20 to spend, but had invested in good socks.  Yeah, Rome did seem a bit far away. 

I asked Jane how she was enjoying her head massager and ever the life of the party, she said that it was fantastic and she was loving it.  Wilson asked what movie they wanted to see and after a bit of discussion, it was decided upon watching ‘Gravity’.  Amanda and I both felt that with somber mood due to Annabelle and the bed bugs, a more lighter movie would have perhaps been appropriate, but ‘Gravity’ it was.  We set the movie up and Cynthia said that she may leave after 10 minutes since she cannot stand space movies.  We were making hot cider, tea and popcorn in the kitchen when Cynthia came into the kitchen out of breath and scared.  She had been spooked by the early scenes in the film and had enough.  She said that one of her biggest phobias was being lost in space and this movie was not helping with that.  She said that she preferred staying outside and reading. 

Gift from Dorothy

Cristina had left, though the other RA Kara was hard at work, cleaning Wendy’s room.  Kara had put all of her clothes and possessions in garbage bags and we helped carry them down to the basement, while Wendy slept.  The basement was full of garbage bags and Kara said that she was going to have to do laundry to ensure there were no bed bugs on the clothes.  The next room to be cleaned was Andrew’s and we told Kara that we would take care of that while she worked on someone else’s room.  Amanda, Wilson and I went inside his tiny room and started packing his stuff into bags and boy did we find some treasures.  We found presents sent by Dorothy and also some of his pictures with her.  We found an album with Andrew’s childhood pictures and a folder labeled “Good Memories”, which had all of the greeting cards that he had ever received.  Oh Andrew, you hopeless romantic!

As we rummaged through his stuff, we found many of his sketches and Cynthia who was sitting at the dining table outside his room said that almost all of Andrew’s sketches are from memory, Dorothy being the only real person that he sketches; and that was because of his strong feelings for her.  There were some other lovely paintings and those were painted by Andrew’s mother.  Looks like that’s where he got his artistic talent.  We put away all of these carefully and bagged his clothes and labeled them.  It had taken us over an hour to pack Andrew’s clothes and had truly enjoyed learning more about Andrew through the things we had found – including a 4 pack of small wine bottles that he had tried to hide by the window!  We then carried all the bags down to the basement and put it along with the other resident’s stuff.  We saw a magnificent painting and Kara said that it was done by Wendy.  I must admit that this was as good as some of the pieces that I have seen in the Art Institute and it was mind boggling to imagine that the frail woman sleeping upstairs had done this wonderful piece of art.  This really is a house of artists. 

We saw their food pantry with a giant refrigerator and freezers.  Kara told us that almost everything is donated by ‘Whole Foods’ or the food pantry.  We came upstairs and saw that Cynthia was packing her beloved books in alphabetical order.  She reads a lot of books and I asked how many.  She said that it depended on how much money she had.  I asked why not use the local library and she said that they don’t always have everything that she likes.  Hmm.  Looks like someone needed to train her how to use the online portal to order books.  The movie was over and Wilson played a short film that I watched while Andrew chatted with Amanda.  This upset Mabel who felt that he was talking over the film and she said that he talks a lot.   While that was true, I felt that she was more upset that he was getting more attention than her. 

I went and joined Andrew and Amanda and once again he talked about cosmology and meaning of life. I asked him how he would define the human “mind” and said that it nothing but a flow of thoughts.  Once again, he got sentimental and said that he wished he hadn't been born; and once again I said that if he hadn't, Dorothy wouldn't have a friend and would have continued to suffer with her abusive husband.  With a sad twinkle in his eyes he said, “I will love her always”.  Sometimes it does make me wonder if he has idealized his relationship with Dorothy or if he even had one. Andrew then started talking about his other favorite topic, guns, and after some time I helped Wilson rearrange the furniture to its original state.  We stopped to chat with Cynthia who was reading her book.  She said that she was in to ‘Fantasy Novels’, since they take her into a whole new world.  She also talked about her days as a legal assistant and we could tell that her mind was still sharp. 

It was time for us to leave and Kara was truly appreciative of our help, without which she would have been at this for hours.  It really was sad to see how much this bed bugs issue was affecting their lives and I hope that tonight they got some relief.  Wilson, Amanda and I had not seen any movie and this had been more of a working session.  But as usual with this place, I had a terrific time.  I was thinking about Andrew after returning back and of the things that we had found in his room.  Around this time I was reading ‘The Book Thief’ by Markus Zusak.  One of the story-lines is of a young boy and his love for a girl which goes unrequited.  I came across a line and the first person that I thought about after reading that was Andrew, with his love for Dorothy.  The more I hear him talk about her, the more I understand something.  Yeah, I understand it very well.

“He must have longed for it so much. He must have loved her so incredibly hard. So hard that he would never ask for her lips again and would go to his grave without them.”

-          Markus Zusak, ‘The Book Thief’

*All the client's names have been changed in order to respect their privacy