Another Dramatic Day At The Home

08-13-2012 at 11:37 AM 

It started almost the moment I walked in and sat down next to my grandmother on one of the three chairs lined up against the wall. My grandmother was in another chair and the third chair was vacant. Until, an old man with a white beard and a wedding ring on his ring finger sat down. I though there was going to be a fight against the cabbage patch lady and this old man who acted and seemed as sane as I was.

The cabbage patch lady began yelling, “that’s my chair!” “Get out of my chair!” It is not necessarily grammatically correct to put several exclamation points at the end of a sentence otherwise I would have filled up this page. She was livid, mad, and put her walker down. Seriously, she picked up her walker and slammed it down right on top of the old mans feet and pierced her lips, well, for as much as a cabbage patch lady can. He said, “go find another chair to sit in.” Before there was another eruption I offered her my chair and she graciously accepted and spat twice on the old man on her way over to my chair. He grumbled a few words under his breath about how tuff she thought she was, etc. The old man eventually got up from his chair and walked over to the window nearby as if he was looking for someone.

My grandmother said she was bored and wanted to go somewhere other than where she was that very moment and she mentioned about going to her room. But, on our way a nurse stopped us and said she wasn’t allowed to be alone in her room. I thought for a minute and realized, with confirmation from the nurse, that this is what “supportive care” is. It was obvious that my grandmother had to live around the schedule of the staff members. If she was tired she was not allowed to lay down in bed where she would be more comfortable than trying to stretch out in a chair to take a nap. I felt bad for her because she was obviously sleepy and wanted a nap in her own bed. That was not allowed. I am looking into the rules about “supportive care” to find out why she is inconvenienced and not the nursing home where if short staffed should hire some aids for this purpose. I am sure my grandmother is not the only person on the wing that requires this type of service. It’s just sad that the old people lose their ability to make the choice as to where to take a nap.

The nurse directed us into the dining area where we sat at her table where they could still monitor my grandmother. I ran out of the wing to get a cup of coffee and when I returned the cabbage patch lady was taking her seat at the table next to my grandmother. My grandmother said, “I don’t want to stay here. That lady is mean.” She got up from her chair faster than I have seen her move in a long time and proceeded to push her chair into the table. We went back into the tv room where she was when I arrived. She drank her coffee and ate some peanut butter crackers while we looked at family photos that she kept in her purse that lived in the basket of her walker. I noticed the old man with the beard holding a bag of what seemed to be clothes and such and standing by the window. He looked as if he was ready to leave at any moment. I asked the nurse if he was a visitor or a patient and sure enough he was a patient. It was hard to tell because he seemed as sane as I was. The truth about him was that he was fairly new there and had not yet accepted his new home. Next he was behind the reception desk sitting in a chair dialing a phone number. He was looking for a ride out of there. He got up and walked over to the door and set the alarm off by trying to open the door without punching in the code. It was sad. That could be me one day. God forbid!

Before I left I learned the cabbage patch lady was celebrating her 104th birthday. Happy Birthday cabbage patch lady.