Location: Lakeview Nursing and Rehabilitation Center
Date: Monday, February 16, 2015; 6:15-7:45 pm
I arrived to see a house full of dogs. Before greeting them, I went over to the main
room to say hello to Jack, Larry and Elmer. They told me that Jim had finally moved out,
though he does visit every now and then. I saw Emma sitting by herself and went over to greet her. She was her usual kind self,
but it seems like she is slowly fading. I
went back to the room with the dogs and we accompanied them to the main activity
room. Robyn, who was leading tonight and
who comes over with Bruce and June, asked if I would mind holding June's leash.
Poor Bruce had just thrown up and she
was trying to clean. June is a sweet
girl and I was happy to do so. She was
generally well behaved, though she did yelp when a dog came in. I took June to see Holly and we were wondering if June was named after the month of her birth. But in fact, Robyn mentioned
that her birthday is next week. I also learnt
that Holly’s birthday was on April 7, same as one of my friends. “I will
be 91 years old”, she said. “91 years young”, I responded.
 |
| Beautiful June |
We went out in the hallway and Robyn assigned all of us. I was going to hang on to June and
accompanying Robyn and Bruce. We were
starting on the 1st floor and I asked her how Bruce can cope with
being blind. She said that it’s been 2
years now and he just follows the scent and navigates by bumping into things. Aww, that’s sad. We weren't having much luck on the 1st
and went into a room where a gentleman by the name of Daniel was lying in bed. He said he's not much of a pet person but was
willing to chat. I saw that he had some ‘Valentine's Day’ balloons and also a ‘Teddy Bear’. I pointed it out and said that he was popular.
He said the bear was for him to hug when he coughs. He had just had bypass and hugging something
soft helps with stitches...not to mention provide comfort when there is
none. He called the bear “Sir Hugs-a-Lot”. We laughed at this and he seemed like a jolly
person. I said that my dad had bypass a
few years ago and based on his recovery, Daniel would be up and about in no time.
We left him and went to the 2nd floor. First stop was with David and I picked up June to
put her next to him. As is his usual
style, he gave her a solid massage; "a deep tissue one", Robyn pointed out. Bruce is amazingly well behaved and sits when
told, even by me. Robyn said that was
impressive that he was used to my voice.
In was warm inside and the pups were getting thirsty. I took the two of them to the fountain,
though poor Bruce was bumping into things.
There were ladies sitting on wheelchairs outside in the hallway and they
loved petting them. Bruce impressed them
by following Robyn’s instructions and doing tricks like shake paws and giving "High-fives".
Next stop was to see Loritta and boy was she in a mood to
chat today. We talked about pets and
she told us about some rabbit which was big and a dog that got along well with
it. She was going on and on as I was
playing with Bruce and June. Bruce would
whip his head around when someone touched him, but would then let you pet
him. June was feeling hot and so went
down on her stomach to feel the cold floor.
We went to the 3rd floor and I said that I wanted to stop by
and meet Pearl. A nurse in her room said that Pearl would be ready in a few minutes and we should come back. Before leaving I yelled out in Hindi asking
how she was and she responded in Hindi saying she was doing well. We went over to see Hannah and once again she
told us about her cat that had died recently.
She said that he had a good life and passed in his favorite chair. Robyn said that at least Hannah had managed to
finish the book about him and she said that some publishers were looking at
it. I said that we would like to see it
soon. Next stop was with Jerry and both,
Bruce and June, joined him on his bed as he fed them the treats. I looked around at some of his newer pictures
on the wall and we left when some others came over for their treats.
We went back to Pearl and I chatted with her in Hindi and
then introduced Robyn. I said that
Pearl’s Hindi was better than mine and Pearl said “bakwas” and I translated, “nonsense”.
Pearl was making some bracelets and they
looked lovely. She told us about her
roommate who is blind and asked if we could send over some volunteers to just
chat with her. She is extremely lonely
and according to Pearl, not treated well by the staff here. In fact Pearl threatened to call the "Social
Services" soon. I said that maybe some of
the Chicago Cares volunteers from other projects could stop by once in a
while. It was time for the dogs to leave
and I wished Pearl goodbye in Hindi, Urdu and she added Punjabi. She gave me some assignment to watch ‘Youtube’ videos on some senior living
facilities.
I said bye to Bruce and June, who had been fantastic. I told Fran about what Pearl had said and
asked her to perhaps work with Wilson to facilitate visits. There was one last thing to do and that was
drop off Emma to her room. She was
eating some cereal from a single serve bowl - perhaps something that she won in
Bingo. I asked if she wanted to be
dropped in her room and she said “Yes
please”. I took her upstairs and
indicated to the nurse to help her in the bed.
Emma said something about her daughter coming to help. She thanked me as I left and I once again had a feeling that she was fading. I had a lot to
think about as I walked back to the station.
*All the client's names have been changed in order to respect their privacy
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