Location: Judge Fisher Apartments
Date: Tuesday, March 03, 2015; 6:30-8:30 pm
I arrived to find that Jason was chatting with some of the
residents. I took my seat and listened
to them talking about the ‘Cubs’
prospects for this year, and they didn’t seem to be too optimistic. Couple of residents arrived, including the
lady who had been interested in Jason’s love life. The two ladies seemed to be good friends and were
joking and fooling around just like good buddies would. One of them looked at my name on the sign-up
sheet and totally butchered it calling me “Rikins
Tippins”. She asked
if that was me and I said that it wasn't even close.
A few other volunteers arrived and we got down to work. I asked them to make 20 goody bags with
candies for the residents to take home while I put the ‘Happy Birthday’ signs on the wall. Jason’s resident friend was blowing balloons as usual while he updated
her on his fiancée in the Philippines. Two
more volunteers arrived and one of them was the girl with whom I had cooked ‘Sloppy Joes’ at ‘Lidia Pucinska’ project. They started cutting and serving the cinnamon roll like thing that we had as snacks
for today, along with tangerines and milk, which I served. These girls had also brought a big birthday
balloon and I suggested that we give it to whoever’s birthday was the closest
in March. After a quick poll, we found
one resident and gave it to her.
Jason mentioned that he had heard that the lady who was at
the security had her birthday today.
We asked one of the residents to confirm, and the lady who had come up
with my creative name came back to report that it was coming up on
Thursday. Jason said that we should go to
give her the cake and milk and also sing ‘Happy
Birthday’. When no resident or
volunteer moved, it was me and Jason who went out and sang, which
pleased her a lot. We came back and the
residents were now demanding that we start the Bingo. We had a good spread of prizes today,
including a ‘Hot Water Bag’, which drew
mixed reviews. There were also
artificial flowers and some ‘Valentine’s
Day’ leftover.
 |
| The prizes |
Jason started calling the game and one of the volunteers was
noting the numbers. I joined the ladies
who were best friends, and another lady at their table. Typically, everyone gets 2 bingo cards but we
were running out and Jason requested some residents to hand over one of their
cards. Both of the friends at my table
gave theirs up. My liking for them kept increasing and I thought that luck
would surely be on their side today.
Sure enough, just as I had predicted, my new friend who had christened
me was the first to win. As she came to
collect her prize, I hinted that she pick up that ‘Valentine’s Day’ leftover, which she did…only to give it to her
bestie. What a lady! Later as her friend won - she had come ever
so close earlier that I said that I would be disappointed in her if she did not
win; she picked soap with “romance
fragrance” – once again prompted by me - and gave it to another lady at
their table. She kept referring to her
as “Happy” and when I asked why, we learned that the person who had named her
was the happiest person she had known.
Well, I told Happy that I would also call her the same.
A few ladies complained that they couldn’t hear the numbers
and Jason apologized for speaking softly.
When they continued to complain, someone got up and said that if
everyone could stop talking so much, they would be able to listen! Our table won quite a bit and they kept
giving their prizes away. Happy won and
gave hers to one gentleman. When she won
again, she did the same with another gentleman.
I said that Happy was only giving prizes to men and I was on to her, at
which she laughed out loud. Jason had
handed over his calling duties to my friend from ‘Lidia Pucinska’ and she was doing a good job of infusing it with
personality. While she did that, Jason
and I walked about and looked at the jigsaw puzzle posters that they have
all around this place.
One gentleman upon winning came over to the prizes table. Since there were some cookies left, I said that it would be a crime if he did not
take those. But he chose toothpaste
saying that he had no teeth, but wanted to clean his gums. Then he said that he wanted to sing and
proceeded to sing Sinatra – at which he was asked to shut up so that others
could hear the numbers! He said that his
name was Steve and once all prizes had been
given out, I went over to him and said “Sing
away”. For the next 20 minutes,
Steve and I had ourselves a medley of
Sinatra hits.
Steve is an incurable romantic and at one stage he said, “My heart is missing, is there a doctor in
the house”. I said, “Only in title”. His voice is really good and I asked him to
sing “My Way”. We first listened to it on my phone and then we
both sang together. He then said that he
wanted to dance, and I put on some instrumental jazz while he proceeded to
dance. Other volunteers had left and Steve was telling Jason and me how he had practiced singing, and how he had trained
his voice. He had been in the service
and claimed to be an entertainer. I said
that he must have been popular with the ladies and he proceeded to tell us some
scandalous stories from his youth.
It had been a fantastic evening with Steve, and as much as we
would have liked to have stayed, it was getting late. As Jason and I took the train back, he told
me about his fiancée in the Philippines, and the challenges with getting her
here after their wedding in August.
Seeing the glow on his face as he talked about her, I asked if she was
the love of his life. He said yes. I said that then he would figure it out. He asked if I was single and now it was my
turn to nod. He said, “Then you haven’t found the love of your
life”. I have often found ‘Great Expectations’ extremely
educational in the matters of love and life.
Something from that flashed through my mind as I muttered to myself, “I didn’t say that now did I?”
“I loved her
against reason, against promise, against peace, against hope, against
happiness, against all discouragement that could be.”
-
Charles Dickens, 'Great Expectations'
*All the client's names have been changed in order to respect their privacy
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