Clean Up
I've deleted the old blog and the links to it. I'll be doing a little more clean up in the posts previous to this one, with the intention of not giving away any more specifics about the people in the pictures here. My intention here is to give a bird's eye view, at least from my perspective, of life at the end of the road. I don't intend to harm anyone at Deadwood (my fictional name for the facility), and I don't mean for them to be found. What I mean to do is tell a little bit of their stories as best I can.
We all have lives to live, and jobs to do. I don't make any judgments about families leaving their elder ones in places like this. This is just what is. Some of the residents need to be here, some have no family, some have come of their own volition, some have been "placed." Some of them have no idea where they are and are waiting for somebody to come and get them. They all mix together with failing faculties and wandering minds.
I attended the monthly birthday party today with Grandma. There was a special luncheon for all the people with birthdays in July. The youngest birthday girl, (most residents are women for obvious reasons) is going to be 80. Of the seven or eight at the party, only two (including Grandma) could have what we would call a normal adult conversation. It was one of the best birthday parties that I've ever been to.
Our lovely lady of the day did not have a birthday this month, but she said that she has stopped counting anyway.
S, fancies herself the Matron of Deadwood, and she certainly is. She has been here a few years and originally came here with her husband. She tends the rose bushes and the hibiscus and brings little statues and things for the garden when she goes shopping with her daughter. She mentions to anyone who will listen that she has stock in the place, and she maintains a two-room suite that could be anyone's cozy apartment.
While most of the residents will complain in a New York Minute about the food, S can't wait to get to the dining room. "I'll eat anything but the spinach," is her motto. S is one of my favorites, not least of which is that her strong personality clashes occasionally with some of the others. We pull each other's leg all the time.
She's only in the last week expressed reservations about being here. A couple of residents have recently left, as well as some of the favorite staff, and she knows that Grandma and me are leaving in short order. She's anticipating being lonely.
