Location: The Imperial Nursing Home
Date: Thursday, June 26, 2014; 6:30-7:45 pm
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| Back at Imperial |
I arrived at Imperial and as is
my usual protocol, sat down in the lobby to wait for other volunteers and our
leader. After a while when no one had
arrived I was beginning to wonder if I was the only one. However, I saw some people go inside and they
were indeed the volunteers for this evening.
I followed them and saw that Rosie from Chicago Cares was already
setting up the Bingo. I spotted a couple
of ladies that I knew, Polly and Josie.
I reminded Polly that I knew her and she responded that we must have
met. Indeed we had, for Polly is quite sharp as well as sassy and I have
enjoyed my time with her in the past
Also present at our table was
another volunteer Kate and she seemed to be a regular here. I asked the ladies if they had any favorite
numbers and Polly said 15, because her birthday was on July 15th. In fact, birthday’s is a main theme for
favorite numbers as Josie rattled off several numbers, including her own
birthday. I found a Bingo card that had
all of her numbers and offered to trade with her. But she said she would stick
with what she had, though my offer was open.
Kate praised Polly’s green sweater and Polly said that she had found it
in a store called ‘Unique’ for all of
2 dollars! She mentioned that the
residents were headed to a ‘Dollar Store’
tomorrow in a bus. I asked how long they
would be there and Polly thought that I was asking how long she had been at
Imperial. She said 2 years and I said
that would be a lot of money spent even by a dollar store standards! I asked what she was looking to get and she
said that she wanted to find some rollers for her hair. That’s fantastic I said and asked Josie if
she was going. She said no since she had
forgotten to sign up and now it was late.
The game started and we were
having the worst luck. Polly said that
she would go with all red chips since it was her favorite color. I had all blue ones but even with this we
were not getting any closer to winning. While
Polly was quite independent, Josie required some help and Kate was guiding
her. At one stage Josie thought that she
had won, though it turned out to be a false alarm. She wistfully looked on as a plush animal toy
that she wanted was claimed by someone else.
I have noticed that they do love their plush animals here. I asked Josie if she had many of those and
she replied in the affirmative. She said
that she keeps them for some time and then gives them away. I asked if she ever played with them and she
said no. I said that you have to play
with a plush animal, remembering reading somewhere that hugging a teddy bear
can help overcome loneliness, and that’s something everyone could use.
 |
| I was trying all color combinations for luck |
A few residents had assembled at
the adjacent table, though no volunteer was sitting with them. Kate suggested that one of us should go join
them and since she was set with Josie, I said that I would go. As I got up, Polly asked if I was
leaving. Josie had just won a glass mug
and so I said that I was just going over to spread the luck! I said hello to the ladies over there, who
introduced themselves as Debbie and Linda.
Soon we were joined by another gentleman, Ted. Once again I asked everyone if they had lucky
numbers and surprise, surprise, it was their birthdays. I learned that Linda and Ted had never played
Bingo over here and I said that we should make sure they win on their
debut. But that was easier said than
done and try as we may – including me constantly changing chip colors – we did
not succeed. I asked what prizes they
would select were they to win and once again they said a plush toy. I mentioned to Rosie that she should more of
those the next time. In fact, a good
Bingo project leader should observe the patterns and tailor their shopping
accordingly.
We had reached the lightening
round with 6 prizes left. It went by
fast and Ted did manage to get his hands on one of them. Another gentleman who had won multiple times
gave away his to Debbie, leaving poor Linda without any prize. I pushed Debbie’s chair to drop her off at
her room and saw that Polly was struggling with hers. I said that I’ll help them both and pushed Polly
inside the elevator first since she was getting off at the top floor. She did not like facing the back of the
elevator and wanted to be turned around, which was a challenge with other
residents in there. But I could see her
point, especially since facing the wall of an enclosed space can be
claustrophobic and that’s something the residents could live without. We managed to get everyone in and then I
dropped off Debbie and left. It had been
a lovely evening and once again a reminder why I like this place a lot.
*All the client's names have been changed in order to respect their
privacy
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