Nursing Home Week

The second week in May is designated as Nursing Home Week. It follows Nuses' day (week). So last week, everytime I turned around there was food. We were all even given a brand new stethescope! Now in my position, this is a pretty useless gift as I don't really do "hands on" care but the thought was nice. Besides it is my favorite color!
This week the activity department usually creates activites for the residents around a daily theme. Tuesday was "clown day". I did not go to work dressed as a clown. Yesterday was "50's day". I put on sneakers and rolled down socks and tried to look a little like that era. (Not with very much success!) Now I must say-I am really not into this dress up thing. One year though, there was "pajama day" and that was pretty neat. I have not got the slightest idea of what to wear today (Hawaiian Day). I don't have a grass skirt or a coconut bra! I often wonder what some of our more demented residents must be thinking.
Sometimes when I look at my residents, I reflect on my own future. Which one of these people will I be like? I sure hope I will be one of the nicer ones! Recently one of my "girls" died unexpectedly. I went in to work on Monday and she had died over the weekend. She was quite the old lady. She had a sharp wit and if you promised her something, you had better deliver. She was made a "greeter"-complete with her own badge and would sit close to the front in her wheelchair. She insisted on seeing pictures I had taken of Kris's wedding and my vacation last year and nagged me until I brought them in. I could not pass by her without giving her a hug. I miss her.
As some of the residents reach the end of their lives, I find myself hoping that they will die and be free of suffering. Lucille was not one of them. I guess I was not ready for her to die. I know she is in a far better place now.

I guess this whole thought process has been brought on by my nephew, Chris Bohjalian. He has a column in the Burlington, Vt newspaper and this week it was about his grandmother. She as kind of like Lucille although at the end of her life was an empty shell of a woman. My memories of my mother are different than Chris's but she was a character as well!
Chris will be in Atlanta tomorrow for a reading of his new book. Sue, Kris and I plan to go to see him. I have not seen him in many years. Talk about a dysfunctional family.