Some Background

As promised, I want to write some entries about my job at one of the local senior's residences. I want to do this because I find that so often I'm touched by little moments during the day, and I hope that maybe some of them inspire others to think or reflect too.

So this residence is part of a larger foundation in Southern Alberta, there are many different lodges in Lethbridge, and luckily (in my opinion) the one I'm working at is quite small. We have between 50 and 60 residents (I'm not sure of the exact number) and they are all on one floor. I mention this because some other lodges have up to 3 floors! I should also mention that there are two lodges side by side. One is an independent living lodge, and the other is a more assisted living lodge. However, neither of them are to the extent of a nursing home. More of the residents are pretty independent, but of course some of them are more limited by things like wheel chairs, walkers, oxygen tanks, etc.

My job is mostly to serve food at meal times, to prepare the dining room before meals, and tidy it up after. Other duties I do are things like dishwasher (occasionally) vacuuming, helping fix TVs, answering machines, remotes, a.k.a. any type of advanced technology for the residents. :) Sometimes I get to taste test the food that gets made in the kitchen, and sometimes I'm lucky enough to help cook a little (so far not much...but a little). There are different shifts during the day, each one has different duties. I haven't worked all of them yet, because I think they have enough staff for the longer day shifts, but hopefully some time I'll be trained for those too.

Since this is already long enough, I'll just share one little story from my shift on Sunday. One of my favorite residents, (yes, it happens) we'll call him "D", has a wife of over 60 years who needs much more care than he does so she stays in a nursing home. I knew he went to visit her almost every day but I had never asked him to many details about the visit. Lots of times I don't ask too many questions for fear of offending them, or being nosey. But on Sunday "D" must have wanted to talk to someone. He told me how hard it is for him to keep visiting her everyday because she can't talk to him, and when she does sometimes she says mean things, like "go away" or "who the hell are you?" He seemed pretty upset, and I could really tell how much he loves her and how much it must break his heart for her not to remember him, or be able to talk to him anymore. This got me thinking about whether or not he would remember the last time they had a real conversation.

I always tell "D" that he is doing an amazing thing by visiting her everyday, since it's a gesture that shows huge amounts of love and care for her. He is such a great guy, and still has many, many years ahead of him (he's 83 now). People like him give me hope that marriage can still work, and that when you vow to stand by each other no matter what, that it will really happen.