I made a decision that because my volunteer work, especially at the Nursing Home is becoming a very important part of my life/recovery that I will post about it here...I just have to. But since these are real people I am writing about I think it is critical to protect their identity so I will use one letter substitutes instead of their names.
At the beginning of this post I was lamenting on life and how it has a way of it's some time. I got to M-Ville (The name of the retirement/Nursing Home)about 1pm, got inside, and acclimated a bit. I had been there a couple of times already so I sort of understood how things operated.
The residents live their lives and are frre to do as they wish within reason. For safety, for example the doors are locked and folks have to be buzzed in or out or use a coded key-pad to punch your way through.
The plan today was to follow K, the Activities Director for a little while then I was going to spend a few hours hanging out with V (A WWII Marine Veteran who lost his arm at Guam)who has trouble getting around and he also suffers some from Dementia. His wife M had asked if I could do this once a week basically so she could shop, clean and have a little bit of a life. She spends every waking hour with V. I was stoked and really looking forward to spending time with him today.
As soon as I arrived, K pulled me aside to inform me that V was doing quite poorly and had already been administered the Last Rights. It was hard, though I hardly knew them I really felt bad for them. I got an opportunity to sit for awhile and amazingly V started to talk! It turns out that he hadn't really said much of anything for a few days or so. M was very pleased and it was encouraging.
This is all part of life in such a home and I know that...didn't really expect to have such an intense experience the very first day. But as I was leaving, the general feeling was that V had turned a corner so that indeed is really good news.
So We'll see how it goes...but I want to say I've been getting so much back from spending time with these wonderful people. People have complimented me for doing this....Naw, it's nothing, I'm getting all the rewards and I have a sneaking suspicion that it will continue that way.
So D-1 (Day One) is over and we move on to next time. I wish there were ten of me so I could spread myself around a little bit but alas it isn't to be!
