Location: Lakeview Nursing and Rehabilitation Center
Date: Monday, April 06, 2015; 5:45-8:15 pm
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| Flowers for Holly |
I had just returned from a trip in the morning and had in
fact dropped out of the project beforehand. But I felt like going this evening for 3
reasons: (1) its Holly's birthday tomorrow and I wanted to wish her; (2) I
wanted to meet Pearl; and (3) I love dogs. So I wrote to Veronica asking if I could come and
she said more the merrier. I arrived
early and stopped to get some flowers for Holly. I was the first to arrive saw that Josie and a few other ladies had already assembled.
Josie looked at the flowers and asked who the lucky lady was. I said that it was Holly and Josie said
that she would love those. I went over
to chat with Jack and since it had just been the ‘Easter’ weekend, he wished me on that. I asked how his weekend had been and he said
that while there had been some activity downstairs, he had not come down. He mentioned how the news nowadays was all
bad with people dying, especially kids.
I said that it was only getting worse and he agreed.
I saw that Emma was here today and I went over to her table.
She was doing something to her Bingo
cards and when I asked what she was up to, she said that she was "stacking them". I said that I had come to get her last week
but she had been sleeping. She got
excited and told me that she had won 3 times last week could hardly believe it.
In fact she mentioned this multiple
times. I asked what she had picked as a
prize and she said a sandwich! Well, it
definitely was not a Chicago Cares bingo! She described it and it seemed like some sort of
a cookie sandwich to me. I told Emma
that I was in St Louis recently and her face lit up in recognition of her
hometown. I mentioned visiting the ‘Arch’ and the ‘Botanical Gardens’ and she said "yes yes they are all nice". Then she started talking
about something when she was 16 but soon lost her train of thought.
I saw that Holly had arrived and Josie motioned to me to
come over. I gave Holly the flowers and
she was visibly touched. She said that
she would be turning 91, though I mentioned that in her heart she was still
35. I said that I was sorry that I
wouldn’t be able to be here tomorrow and she said that she appreciated me for
today since she may not be here tomorrow as well. There is a lesson in there for us all. I left Holly to go upstairs to see Pearl, who
was now in a different room. She was
dozing when I arrived but woke up and was a bit dazed. She said that she wanted to read something to
me and I promised that I would stop by after the project.
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| Gus |
I came down and heard the yapping of the dogs, especially
Reed, with whom I had walked last time. There
was a cute ‘Beagle’ named Gus as well
as a ‘Chocolate Lab’ named Bauer. Fran was here and explaining the evening to 3
teenage boys, who were here with a chaperone.
Veronica arrived soon and after signing everyone, paired me with Gus,
his owner and another volunteer. After
the Bingo room, our first stop was with David on the 2nd floor. I told the ladies about the massage that David dishes out and that was exactly what happened.
Gus is 10 years old but still looks like a puppy and was enjoying every
minute of it.
Next, we stopped with another gentleman who loved visiting
with Gus and then it was Polly. Dena was lying in the next bed with a “Happy
Birthday” balloon on her chair and Polly said that it had been her birthday
a couple of weeks ago and her family had come to take her out. That was good to hear. Next up was Loritta who thought Gus was a
girl. His owner said that even the
groomer had thought so to which we all said that if anyone should know the
difference, it should be the groomer!
Loritta once again talked about her son who chased a woman to Georgia
and left his mom for a wife. I love
visiting with Loritta because she never fails to make me laugh.
Before going to the 3rd, I saw Valerie - who hardly attends Bingo nowadays - and she was
trying to communicate with Gus through barking!
I don’t know if that worked, but Gus looked as puzzled as us. Our first stop on 3rd was with Jerry and Gus loved his bacon shaped treats. Our
final stop was with Hannah and she once again talked about her cat, though she
did like Gus. She said that she didn’t
want to touch him since she had some cream on her fingers. I asked how her book was progressing and she
said that she had it copyrighted it. I said
that I looked forward to purchasing it and she said that she would give it to
me as a present. I said that only on the
condition that she signed it.
Gus was tired at this stage and so he left and I went over
to see Pearl. She read to me the latest
blog that she has written about life in nursing care. It was gut wrenching, but it’s amazing to see
her command over what she wants to say. She read other things from her blog and talked about her 2 sons and how she has had no contact with them for
years. She told me how she’s in touch
with this guy whom she has known since they were 14. I asked if he was the love of her life and
she said yes. He’s far away and married but
the way she spoke about him convinced me about how she felt about him. She told me about how life has been tough and
how if she has to once again go through a similar treatment like a few years
ago, she would just prefer to die. I
told her that I expected her to keep fighting and keep getting better so that she
can leave this place. I said that when I
returned in 2 weeks, I wanted her to have made progress towards that. I left after that, glad that I had changed my mind and had
come this evening.
*All the client's names have been changed in order to respect their privacy
