July 15, 2011

Nicks journey to Memory Care.....

   Nick recently visited grandma in memory care. This was a hard experience for him as grandma isn't making a lot of sense latley. The funny thing is, when he went to visit, it wasn't grandma who who told the crazy storys.
   The thing is, people in memory care usually remember snips of truth and somehow mix it with a movie, or a story they once heard, or maybe even a story they made up somewhere along the line.
   This time a cute little old lady backed Nick against a wall with her walker. She looked at him seriously and would not back down. Finally she said, "My daddy is a Sheriff in Klamath Falls, and he is on his way to pick you up. Don't go anywhere!" Nick stood there confused. Then she continued, "I know who you are. I know you murdered all those people. You just wait right here! He is on his way and I'm keeping an eye on you!"  Nick still stood confused and said, "I think you have me mixed up! I'm a good guy!" She stood her ground, walker in hand and replied, "they always are, they always are." It took about 10 minutes to get an aide to come rescue my poor traumatized honey. Thankfully we all can laugh it off and lucky for me I have been warned! His secret is out!
   This reminds me of the days when I worked at Oak Lane Retirement Center. We had all kinds of sweeties and some not so sweeties, we were in contact with every day.
   George for instance had to have all his silverware from the same place. If his fork was from China and his spoon was from Indonesia he could not eat. They all had to be from China, or all from Indonesia etc. He was a very sweet man.
   Fred was not so nice. He had his nice moments if you listened to him. His quirk was that he wanted us to know what he liked and what he didn't like and if anything he didn't like happened, well, all hell would break loose in the dining room. For instance, Fred did not drink coffee, so if there was a coffee mug in his place setting, he would throw it at you. "You should know by now 'tiger tails' that I don't drink coffee!" he would yell as the cup came hurling toward you. The same went for his soup spoon. If we were serving soup with dinner you had better be sure Fred had a soup spoon or it too would be thrown at you.
   These are just a few examples of the fine folk I remember of my days at Oak Lane. The stories I heard from the residents and their quirks will always be with me, and I will be sure to have my kids, at least visit, a retirement home so they too can enjoy the gifts these folk rarely get to share.

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