Who knew that my husband Paul and
Donald would become buddies? They were roommates who shared a very small
room for over one year at Duxbury's Bay Path Nursing Home. Visits by me
to both of them occurred daily. I would not know I was in a nursing home
when I opened the front door. But when I pressed the second-floor elevator
button and the door opened, I was overwhelmed with the mixed smells of bleach,
disinfectant, stale food, and body odors.
Donald and Paul were the perfect
roommates. There was only one tv in the room and it belonged to
Donald. Luckily they both liked to watch the same program on Donald's tv
- mainly sports. When I walked into their room each day, the volume was
always set at 100 and I could hear the blasting tv from way down the
hallway. The three of us watched "The Price is Right" every day
- our favorite show. When each prize was shown, we had to guess the price
and the one who came the closest won. If a living room set was show-cased,
Donald would yell out "$300," Paul "$1000" and I would
always win with my higher bid. My two guys got so excited when a new car
was featured. At the end of the show, we'd laugh and clap.
Paul loved to go out to lunch and
we did go out often. I'd just ask him - "Paul do you want to go out
to eat?" and next thing he'd be zipping down the hall. Because of
liability issues, I could not take Donald - so instead, brought him back
something. When I asked Donald if he'd like me to bring him back a Big
Mac - he'd always say: "No, bring me two."
Donald would "squeal" on
Paul by telling me the minute I entered their room: "Paul's been
scratching his legs again" and Paul would glare at him and roll his eyes.
Thanksgiving was soon upon us and
we decided to spend our Thanksgiving at Bay Path. Of course dinner was at
noon. We even had to make reservations for the big day. When I arrived
shortly before noon, both my guys were all spruced up and looking good. I
begged Donald to join us for Thanksgiving dinner but he proudly said "No,
my son is coming to pick me up to spend the day and dinner at his
home." Donald did have a son who lived in Duxbury and a daughter who
lived in Plymouth but I never saw them and nurses told me he never had
visitors. So Paul and I left that room with Donald sitting on the side of
his bed waiting in his red and black checkered jacket and holding his cap in
his hand. Paul and I had one of our best Thanksgiving that day and
enjoyed our dinner with a "young" lady in her 50's named Anna and her
mother Ruth. We all laughed heartily and swapped stories and talked of
past Thanksgivings. The four of us were the last to leave the dining room
at 4 pm. We "closed the joint down," we all said.
Of course, at this point, Paul was
over-ready for his nap and so the two of us took the elevator to the second
floor and went into their room and there was Donald still sitting on the side
of his bed in his red and black checkered jacket and holding his cap in his
hand waiting for his son. My heart sunk and I said to Donald
"Can I go to McDonald's and get you a Big Mac? But he
said: "No, my son, I know, is on his way." Like a child -
he had this incredible faith and I hoped and prayed all the way home that he
was right.
The next morning, I spoke to the
nurses about Donald and they were so angry. The head nurse, Margaret,
said to me: "Donald sat on the side of his bed all day and at
7 pm, the son called and said he could not make it."
My heart was broken.
Something inside me changed that day. What should I have done? It
haunts me to this day.
And so, it came to be, that every
Thanksgiving from then on, I toast to Paul and Donald, both long gone. I
remember them fondly - each in his own bed - yelling out answers to "The
Price is Right."
Comments
Post a Comment