Lakeview Seniors Pet Therapy

Location: Lakeview Nursing and Rehabilitation Center
Date: Monday, April 06, 2015; 5:45-8:15 pm


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.

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

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