Overheard

I love afternoons at Rock Ridge. A group of residents (lovingly referred to as The Peanut Gallery—what else?) assembles outside my office for some conversation and fellowship. I try hard to stay focused on my work…really I do…but sometimes the conversation is simply too much to ignore. Take today for instance. Lois (of the mismatched socks) was doing a little griping about the fact there aren’t enough “good” people living here. Gladys jumped right in and corrected her. “Oh no, we have plenty of good people here. Everyone has mostly good in them! It’s just that sometimes things in life happen and they don’t want to push that part out.” Gladys has such a great life philosophy, even if her wording is a little questionable.

From there, the conversation turned to wine.( Lois thinks that we should serve wine with dinner). She told Gladys how much she would enjoy drinking a glass of wine from time to time if only someone would join her. Gladys said she never much of a wine drinker, but she did like “a little taste of other things from time to time.” (Of course by now, I’ve given up all attempts of work and am straining to hear better.) Lois said “I never like to drink that hard stuff unless I’m home and have a man with me who likes the same thing.” HAHAHAHAHA!!! Gladys immediately starts laughing. Lois is flustered and protests “that didn’t really come out right,” to which Gladys quickly replied “No, it never does in those situations!” I’m convinced she is the quickest witted Alzheimer’s patient who ever existed.

The topic changed again--which it does quite often when you have two people with Alzheimer’s chatting--and Lois proclaimed the best thing about being her age is “knowing Jesus better.” Apparently still not forgetting the earlier part of the conversation, Gladys piped right in with a hearty laugh and “I’m guessing Jesus doesn’t know you nearly as well as we do!”

It is baffling that Gladys could spout her wit like that, but just prior to that she told the exact same story four times…and Lois listened to it four times… as though it were the only time she’d ever heard it. They were both so fully present in that conversation at that instant… I almost forgot they have Alzheimer’s.

During a moment like that, the work can certainly wait.

Is it really December already?

I wish I had more time to share the daily goodies that come my way, but man this place is nuts. I'm also providing administrative support to a sister property who lost their director, so all my little post-it notes of things I want to remember to write about will have to continue to wait for another day. Until then, though, here's a little piece of hilarious conversation that took place outside my office door on Tuesday of last week.

Lois (of the mismatched socks): "Gladys, is Thanksgiving tomorrow?"

Gladys: "Well, I don't know. Is it this week?"

Lois: "Joseph, do you know if Thanksgiving is tomorrow?"

Joseph: laughs "Huh. Well. I guess I don't know."

Lois: to Little Miss Chatterbox "How about you? Do you know if Thanksgiving is tomorrow?"

LMCB: "You know, that's a funny thing, Thanksgiving. I said to my daughter on the phone this morning that Thanksgiving should be coming up, and then she told me when it was. I wonder if we'll have turkey here? Everyone always thinks you have to have turkey on Thanksgiving, but I think why should it always be turkey? We could have something besides turkey. And stuffing! All that bread? Why should people serve that every Thanksgiving. Really. But anyway she told me when Thanksgiving was, but I don't think I can remember."

Lois: still not giving up "Maude? Do you know if Thanksgiving is tomorrow?"

Maude, who is 99 and performing true to her usual form, put an end to the entire conversation by replying "How in the hell should I know?"

I love old people.

Mid Week Treat

I caught this group of happy people yukking it up yesterday afternoon outside my office. They were laughing so much I had to go see what all the commotion was about. Can you tell what was so funny by looking at the picture?

Joseph and Gladys were laughing at Lois (far right) because she was wearing one knee high panty hose and one black sock with her sandals. On accident, of course. Lois laughed right along with them. It was hilarious. Assistant then told them how I showed up to work one day wearing two different shoes (true story). They thought that was even funnier. I thought Gladys was going to pass out she was laughing so hard. Listening to three people with dementia laugh like there's no tomorrow is very high on the list of reasons I love this job.

As we were laughing, Little Miss Chatterbox wandered upon the scene interested in what the commotion was all about. She was, of course, wearing her lab coat (see, I don't make this stuff up!) , though I think it has been hemmed...which makes me wonder....who in the world would have hemmed a lab coat for an 89-year-old assisted living resident to gad about in?!?

Happy Hump Day. It's been a fun week at the Ridge!

p.s. Speaking of Hump Day... when Assistant woke Joseph up the other morning he groggily looked at her and asked "Can you have kids?" She told him that no, she already had kids. "Then can I stick it in?" he very politely asked. HAHAHAHA!