Notes from the road. I arrived in Eugene late Saturday and went straight to see my Aunt Judy. She is my favorite living woman on this planet. She unfortunately has had a series of brain aneurisms. After arriving at the nursing home I was directed to find her in the dinning hall. Her head had been shaved months ago and I almost walked out of the room not thinking that she was in the hall. Finally I picked her out of the crowd and joined her and four others at her table. There was a large black man named Larry who was very alert but extremely shaky. He was using a fork that I saw either on Shark Tank (TV show) or probably discovery channel. The fork has the ability to counter act enough shaking to allow the patient to feed themselves. He was flanked by a nurse Also sitting at the table was a woman that had suffered a stroke that effected her mobility on one side, I did not remember her name thru the night. She was accompanied by her son, a man a little older than me (50ish) named Toby. Toby helped his mom when she needed it but was there to mostly add support. I am not sure what Toby did for a living but whatever it was, he has two people named Middleton working for him, Steven and Jeffery. It was very difficult sitting with everyone in the beginning but, Toby made things much more relaxed with his quick smile and caring attitude towards his mom. My Aunt did not recognize me in the beginning, probably because of my ever changing looks. She has never saw me with a bald head or with a beard that has a six inch long pony tail resting beneath my chin. Is it a Pony Tail if it is in the front? I asked did she recognize me and she said no and looked very sad about it. I covered some of the hair on my face and asked her again and she said no again and lowered her head and eyes and gazed under the edge of the table and finally lifted her head a little bit and then asked coyly if was I a “duplicate?” I repeated back to her “a duplicate?” she said yes and repeated her question if I was a duplicate. What was she getting at? It occurred to me that she is word assimilating and as banged up as her brain is, she won’t always pick the right word or phrase. The answer came to me after a minute of contemplation that Duplicate could be a relative, and I answered her, “Yes, I am David’s brothers duplicate” and she smiled really big. That made the trip to see her well worth the time. The dining room was thinning out, nurses came in and rolled away the dinner guests one at a time. When the last of the people left from Auntie’s table I pulled out my iphone and played a couple Fleetwood Mac songs and told her how she helped to influence my musical taste. Her mood seemed to perk up slightly. She was making motions under the table towards the end of the last song and I did not know what to make of it and joked with her that she “cannot feed a dog under the table if there is not a dog under there.” and she smiled so grandly. I hope it made her day as much as it made mine. David has suggested that I should consider this line of work and I will.
Posted on: Mon, 22 Sep 2014 23:38:56 +0000
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