Location: Lakeview Nursing and Rehabilitation Center
Date: Monday, October 05, 2015; 6:00-7:45 pm
I arrived early to see that Charta was already there, as well
as a new enthusiastic volunteer who had just moved here as an “Americorp fellow”. A new dog came in and Charta got all excited
to see him, though in reality she was just trying to be friendly. I went over to say hello to Emma and she was
looking cute with a red sweatshirt and matching red nail paint. She was talking about some tablecloth that
was missing from the table while organizing her Bingo chips by color. Somehow the conversation turned to sweet
foods and we talked about jelly and pies and cookies, a topic that she is
always keen on. It seems like she is
particularly fond of strawberry though she also talked about other fruits like
orange, blueberry, blackberry and banana, but kept coming back to strawberry. She looked really happy as she talked about
this, smiling all the time. She
mentioned something about whipped cream and I said let’s make it a strawberry
milkshake. I asked what about chocolate
chip cookies and her face lit up. She
said "chocolate is nice"
and I re-plied, "Amen to that"!
 |
| This cutie is a boy! |
Maureen, who was leading Bingo, said that she had some
cancellations and I was welcome to stay. But we had 5 dogs now so I would
probably be needed over there. I left Emma
with a volunteer and said that I would be back to pick her up, joining my group
in the hallway. Before I left, I heard
Kenny say that there were a lot of guest stars coming up on “Hawaii 5-0” and I looked at Jim who was
growling. I saw that one of the pups was
a little creature whose hair was dyed in pink -and he was a boy!! Everyone immediately took a liking to him and
he was friendly as well. Fran, who was
leading paired everyone and I was with Charta's new friend, and whose owner
reminded me that we had indeed walked together before. I then remembered that it was my old pal Alvie.
We started on the 2nd floor and stopped over to
see David, who is always in a good mood. Every time you ask how he is, his answer is "fantastic". We discussed his photography, especially some
pictures of the ocean, and he said that he loves living near the water. He also mentioned that he was leaving this
place in a week. Whether this is true or
not, I wished him well. Next, we stopped
at the lady with the pearls and she was looking sharp as ever. Her roommate was lying down and was looking
at Alvie from the other side of room, smiling as she did so.
We stayed for a bit and then continued, though we weren’t having much
luck today. We saw the usual gentleman
who hangs around in the corridors and he was waiting to go in his room since
his roommate had a lot of visitors. I
told him that he should go inside whenever he wanted and “reclaim his room”.
We went over to Polly’s room, but she wasn’t there and Odelia
mentioned that she was outside somewhere.
I asked Odelia why she wasn’t downstairs playing Bingo and she said she
had the allergies. We went over to see Loritta,
but her roommate was getting changed and so we couldn’t stay. That was it for 2nd floor and so
we moved upstairs. We went to see Linda,
but she was on the phone, though as is always certain, there was an
open book next to her. We chatted with
another lady in her room who loves dogs and then moved on. Jerry was getting his treatment and Charta
was in Hannah’s room, meaning there was no place for us to go. We came down to
1st and walked around, but did not see anyone and so were done in
record time at 7:15 pm.
Since there was no one else to visit, Alvie left and I went
back upstairs to Hannah’s room, where Fran was present. Hannah had not yet heard from her lawyers and
said that “No news is good news”,
though I am not sure that’s accurate.
She said that she was hoping that this meant that they were still
reviewing. She was a bit down on
herself, saying that she came here on her two legs and was now leaving as a “cripple”. She said that it wasn’t the fault of people
who worked here since they were “under
paid and over worked”. I said that
the fact that she could understand and say it, meant she was still sharp. She herself said that she could be “eccentric but not crazy”. I came back down and learned that Emma had won
3 games. I said she should be careful
where she spent her fortune, which was all of $3. As I took her upstairs, she talked about her
daughter visiting and how she hadn’t had dinner. As I dropped her off, I said perhaps she
could have a “Strawberry Milkshake”
with her daughter. She had certainly
earned it.
*All the client's names have been changed in
order to respect their privacy
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