Granny
Gold Member
I really do. As some of you might know already, I do in-home companion care for elderly people. It isn't all cleaning up puke and shit. There are a lot of rewards to be had. I can look at these people who have dementia and Alzheimer's or who are just plain old and want to stay in their homes and die there ... and I can thank God for being so blessed with the good health I have. They ask for so little and, in their own way, give so much back.
I've been taking care of this one little 96 year old lady for a good while now and she has been an absolute hoot. I just love her. She's a plain old down to earth mountain girl. I've listened to some of her stories of her more youthful years ... and members of her family have verified the stories are true, so this little lady was something else!! She couldn't have children but adopted a child from an orphanage. I kind of like the story of the day her mother came to her house and asked why in the world she had all that laundry hanging all over the place - her reply was, "I want everybody to know I've got me a boy!"
Her house was neat as a pin and she knew exactly where everything was.
She took a fall recently and broke her arm so that meant she had to have 24/7 care until she could be put in an assisted living place to undergo therapy. She has a hell of a way of putting things sometimes and doesn't mind speaking her mind! So one morning at the breakfast table she looked at me and said, "That little girl that stays with me [in her early 20s] is real sweet but, you know, she couldn't get her finger up her ass if she was using both hands."
I miss my little old lady and I've been trying for the last week to get over to see her but something always comes up. Right now I'm just standing in for other caregivers until a full-time situation comes up.
So, last week I had a fill in for four days on a 9:30 - 1:30 schedule ... and I have never in my life checked my watch so many times in a four hour period. I thought those days would never end. I promise you I bit my tongue and "ma'amed" my way throughout the entire ordeal (and rolled my eyes when no one was looking).
This woman was a prima donna if ever there was one - couldn't do a damned thing for herself.
Her husband may have loved her with all his heart but I figured out the first day why he stayed in his room all day with the door shut. They were very well educated - I don't know what she did other than write poems but he was a retired nuclear physicist. Very nice big house ... that had not been touched since they day they bought it. Crap all over the place; walls and curtains, etc. that were in dire need of a fix - well, never mind.
She wanted me to help her get her bra on (which is not an unusual thing when you sometimes have to help some of these elderly people get dressed). "Don't touch me!!!" she yells - well what the **** just happened here I ask myself. This woman has bazoomas the size of Dixie melons and she's trying to stuff them into bra cups about the size of a cantelope ... fine. I won't touch you. Just the slightest touch brings on an "Ow!" but she has to have a feet rubbed with lotion and her toes rubbed with Vasoline and I shouldn't get them mixed together. Fine.
"You can bring [this, this and this] for lunch and you can count out 8 grapes for each of us - don't forget to was the grapes." Eight grapes apiece, huh? Ohhhh-kay. Got it.
"So, now I'm going to wash my eyes and brush my teeth. You can hand me the cotton balls."
The damned cotton balls are right there, but OK. "Okay, now you can put this cotton ball in the trash and hand me another one." The trash can is right there - but I've got to take her eye disease infected cotton balls and drop them in the trash for her.
"You can take off my bathrobe now." Really. Who put it on you - because I know you and your husband sleep in different bedrooms - you've got the California king and he's got the twin size across the hall. I make both of them up.
At the end of these hellish four days when I turned in my time sheet I told my boss that if she were to pay me even $50/hour I would not go back to that house. She said she'd already had 4 other people refuse to go back and that one of them had walked out in tears.
I now officially HATE the word "entitled."
I've been taking care of this one little 96 year old lady for a good while now and she has been an absolute hoot. I just love her. She's a plain old down to earth mountain girl. I've listened to some of her stories of her more youthful years ... and members of her family have verified the stories are true, so this little lady was something else!! She couldn't have children but adopted a child from an orphanage. I kind of like the story of the day her mother came to her house and asked why in the world she had all that laundry hanging all over the place - her reply was, "I want everybody to know I've got me a boy!"
Her house was neat as a pin and she knew exactly where everything was.She took a fall recently and broke her arm so that meant she had to have 24/7 care until she could be put in an assisted living place to undergo therapy. She has a hell of a way of putting things sometimes and doesn't mind speaking her mind! So one morning at the breakfast table she looked at me and said, "That little girl that stays with me [in her early 20s] is real sweet but, you know, she couldn't get her finger up her ass if she was using both hands."
I miss my little old lady and I've been trying for the last week to get over to see her but something always comes up. Right now I'm just standing in for other caregivers until a full-time situation comes up.
So, last week I had a fill in for four days on a 9:30 - 1:30 schedule ... and I have never in my life checked my watch so many times in a four hour period. I thought those days would never end. I promise you I bit my tongue and "ma'amed" my way throughout the entire ordeal (and rolled my eyes when no one was looking).
This woman was a prima donna if ever there was one - couldn't do a damned thing for herself.
Her husband may have loved her with all his heart but I figured out the first day why he stayed in his room all day with the door shut. They were very well educated - I don't know what she did other than write poems but he was a retired nuclear physicist. Very nice big house ... that had not been touched since they day they bought it. Crap all over the place; walls and curtains, etc. that were in dire need of a fix - well, never mind.She wanted me to help her get her bra on (which is not an unusual thing when you sometimes have to help some of these elderly people get dressed). "Don't touch me!!!" she yells - well what the **** just happened here I ask myself. This woman has bazoomas the size of Dixie melons and she's trying to stuff them into bra cups about the size of a cantelope ... fine. I won't touch you. Just the slightest touch brings on an "Ow!" but she has to have a feet rubbed with lotion and her toes rubbed with Vasoline and I shouldn't get them mixed together. Fine.
"You can bring [this, this and this] for lunch and you can count out 8 grapes for each of us - don't forget to was the grapes." Eight grapes apiece, huh? Ohhhh-kay. Got it.
"So, now I'm going to wash my eyes and brush my teeth. You can hand me the cotton balls."
The damned cotton balls are right there, but OK. "Okay, now you can put this cotton ball in the trash and hand me another one." The trash can is right there - but I've got to take her eye disease infected cotton balls and drop them in the trash for her. "You can take off my bathrobe now." Really. Who put it on you - because I know you and your husband sleep in different bedrooms - you've got the California king and he's got the twin size across the hall. I make both of them up.
At the end of these hellish four days when I turned in my time sheet I told my boss that if she were to pay me even $50/hour I would not go back to that house. She said she'd already had 4 other people refuse to go back and that one of them had walked out in tears.
I now officially HATE the word "entitled."
lol
