Funny Distractions

 Hello everyone.  Praise the Lord!

My wife and I arrived at the hospice in the afternoon.  We were going to visit two patients today. The first one was a hundred year old lady. In two months she will be a hundred and one years old. Last week she could not hear anything due to her ears being in the process of being cleaned out. 

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We walked in her room and she was sitting on her chair listening to an audio book, as was her habit. We walked in and introduced ourselves, but by the look on her face she didn't recognize us. That was no surprise as that is common with the elderly.

She took off her headset and tried to talk with us, but she still could not hear much.  After a few minutes we understood that we could not communicate with her, so we politely excused ourselves. We left her room and walked down the hall to our next visit.

As we walked passed near the front doors, there was an elder man in a wheelchair. We had a conversation last week with him (He tried to kill me!). He is a retired bull hauler. A bull hauler is a truck driver who transports livestock, mostly bulls, around the country.

We continued down the hall and discovered our second patient was sitting in her wheelchair and watching television with two other patients. She was happy to see us and recognized us immediately. We pulled up a couple of chairs and started a nice conversation.

As we were talking, an older gentleman that was sitting nearby uninvitedly started to join in the conversation. We were nice to him as he was probably just lonely. Plus we could tell that he wasn't in his right mind. But he was a bit of a funny distraction.

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As our talk with our patient continued, an elderly lady in a wheelchair wanted to come out of the television area and roll out into the breakroom. In order to do that I needed to get out of my chair. So I got up and let her roll out. She was a bit of a funny distraction.

I joined back into the conversation again and were having a nice talk with our patient. In a few minutes the lady in the wheelchair returned and wanted back into the television area. Yes, that meant that I had to get back up and move my chair and let her back in.  She was a bit of a funny distraction.

This time I positioned my chair where she could roll around me if she wanted to get back out. Our visit continued. The the man sitting next to us continued to uninvitedly join our conversation. He was a bit of a funny distraction. 

Finally we finished our visit and we kind of laughed about the seemingly weird distractions. As we were walking down the hallway on our way out of the nursing home, I explained that this was all intentional, but for reasons of loneliness on the two interlopers. I explained why it was important to be patient and kind in these circumstances. Showing love is always best.

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William James Roop

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