Oye! Another Day At The Home Edit Blog Entry

03-26-2012 at 07:14 PM

“Help me!” The old lady sitting on the floor had fallen off of her chair. I wasn’t there to witness it but I could only guess by the looks of it. I pointed out to the three staff members who were only a few feet away at the nurses’ station that someone needed help getting up. They eventually got her back into her chair. I roll my eyes at this. Why did it take a visitor to tell them someone had fallen out of their chair and was CALLING for help. There were three only a few feet away. Hello?

“You got it in here so you should be able to get it out of here.” What? My thoughts were ‘excuse me old lady just step aside and stop being a bitch’ but I knew that wasn’t the case. I was in a nursing home visiting my grandmother on the Alzheimer’s wing. Her obnoxious behavior was justified I suppose. I went to my grandmothers’ room to take her to the dining room to feast on some carbs and when she got up to leave an old lady stepped in front of her blocking her into a corner. The old lady was more interested in talking to my four year-old who took no interest in her. He wanted to see his great-grandmother and share with her his little personal pan cheese pizza from Pizza Hut. My grandmother asked her to move out of the way and she refused. I asked her to move out of the way so she wouldn’t get hurt. She refused. She was referring to my grandmothers’ walker when she made the sarcastic remark. We managed to get the walker out without incident.

“Your going to die.” She said this to my four year old. I wanted to smack her across her old face but I couldn’t and I didn’t. She was sitting across from my son as he ate his pizza. She tried to tease him by acting as if she was going to steal the pizza he held in his hand but all she did was upset him and piss off my grandmother. Once she gave up on my son she started to go after my grandmothers’ pizza. She won’t tolerate it and told the old lady where to go. My grandmother may be old but she will always have words with attitude. The old lady didn’t give up so we left the table to step outside in the courtyard and when we returned we noticed the old lady had stolen my grandmothers’ coffee cup that may have had a few drops left. I had made my grandmother a cup of coffee in another wing upon my arrival. Coffee was not accessible to the people who occupied her wing so I suppose anything found to eat or drink between meals were like gold to the old people.

“There’s no way out!” I know what she meant but in a way it sounded bad when the aid told the old lady who was trying to open the door to get outside. The courtyard has tables and chairs with tulips that color the scene. There is even a big white bunny rabbit that is caged inside a white picket fence. She just wanted to get outside to enjoy the nice warm weather and have a change of scenery. I sat with my grandmother and watched the aid as she interacted with the old lady. The aid looked at me and then asked the old lady if she wanted to go outside. I couldn’t help but think she did it for my sake by the look she gave me but I was hoping it was not the case. The aid took another patient who was in a wheelchair outside and the old lady followed. The aid didn’t flinch when the door closed on the old ladies arm. I saw it and the old lady felt it. I think the aid just wanted to get on with her work. I was disgusted with the way the old lady was treated. I am pretty confident this aid was new on this wing since I had never seen her there before. The two old people were able to enjoy only five minutes of fresh air before the aid ushered them back in.

“Can I have those shoes?” The cutest African American old lady I have ever met was walking around in socks with a few toes sticking out through a hole in the sock on her left foot. She kept pointing to the basket on my grandmothers’ walker. There were no shoes in that basket. She kept asking and it wasn’t until my grandmother got agitated did the old lady walk away. But, she returned after she made her rounds asking everyone in the room if they had an old pair of shoes. I had taken my shoes off and she wanted them. I felt bad for her because she had lost her shoes. I suggested that she ask one of the staff. I don’t know if she ever found her shoes.

The best part of our visit was when we spoke of the old country and what it was like as a little girl. She spoke a few words of the old language and answered a few questions about her family. My son loved visiting his great-grandmother because she gives him cookies to eat and loves him like a grandmother should. They say the best things come in small packages. So goes for this short paragraph of my entire blog.