bananas

I went to go see my brother this Saturday.  He wasn't ready yet, so I went up to his room.  I looked at this walker, his compartment for storing stuff he wants to take around with him was stuffed.  So I asked to look inside.  There were 10-12 bananas inside, in varying stages of decay.  When I asked him to take them out, he got aggravated but agreed.  but he insisted on putting them into his refrigerator, he refused to throw them out!  There were also a NY Times and about 10 magazines that I asked him to take out and just leave in his room until we got back.  He stuffs the compartment so full that the walker is breaking.  Sometimes only 3 instead of 4 wheels are on the ground, and it is a pain to fold and lift into the car because the compartment won't fold up if it is stuffed.

He also refused to throw out the old newspaper, and he stuffed that into an "empty" drawer that was filled to the brim with newspapers.

We had an interesting conversation about the issue.  In terms of the bananas, there's a lady who is 101 years old who sits with him on the seventh floor lobby in the evenings and she gives him two bananas every night, along with one or two graham crackers that she has taken out of their celllophane packages.  He also gets two bananas.  I think the idea is that this is how the patients can keep up their potassium levels.  Anyway, he doesn't feel like  he can say no, so he just keeps them.

I suggested that he talk to the head nurse and explain the problem, and ask where he should put the bananas once the lady goes to bed.  Or he could talk to the social worker.  I plan to give him a few days and if the problem isn't fixed, I will have to call them myself. Readers will remember that this isn't the first time I've written about hoarding food in the compartment, he used to do it all the time at the other nursing home, I would find butter, mustard, and catsup all the time.

The papers are stashed because there is a son of one the patients who comes around and asks for the arts section.  Or at least, that's what my brother says.  All I know is that there at least 3-4 drawers full of newspapers.
  
I actually found this problem a little amusing and endearing, I don't know why.   Probably because the bananas hadn't decayed enough to cause a mess.  

I think I have mentioned lately that I am feeling a bit resentful lately, suffering from feelings of being trapped.  I think most of it has to do with the issue of pending retirement (not for at least 3 more years) and wanting to "snowbird".  I don't see how I am going to be able to leave him for 4-6 weeks at a time.  It's more of an issue if my kids stay in California.  If they do, I am going to want to spend chunks of time there, and I can't figure out how to do this unless I move permanently and move my brother with me.  Then there's the issue of finding him a decent nursing home that takes medicaid...well, that's still off in the future.

Meanwhile, my husband has been visiting him during the week for me, which has helped considerably.