Last Wednesday, my husband offered to visit my brother so I wouldn't have to go that night. It was a good thing too because I have been managing several hot issues/crises at work and I was really, really tired when I got home. In fact, I didn't even go work out, which I usually do every day.
That afternoon I got a wonderful phone message from my brother. My husband always has him call me on my husband's cell phone, and usually I am too busy to answer or I don't even it hear it ring because it is sitting in my purse, locked in a drawer.
But that day, I heard the message is little later. My brother was ebullient, telling me what a great day it was and how wonderful he felt, and that everything was "just wonderful". It made me feel really good about finding him a decent nursing home. I remembered how hard I struggled to create condidtions so that he could live independently, and then I reflected how living in a nursing home provides him with the social interaction he so rarely had in his earlier life, especially after he got to ill to work. He truly seems happier than I have seen him in a very, very long time. Although he often talks about how most of the patients are just "so out of it", I think he gets a lot out of interacting with the staff on a daily basis. It is a blessing that his mental disabilities allow him to not suffer from the drudgery and sadness of living in a nursing home.
Friday, September 19, 2014
Sunday, September 7, 2014
an interview
Yesterday, I was having the usual Saturday morning breakfast with my brother. He was in a very good mood and somewhat talkative. We were discussing the idea of whether he should assume a leadership role in the nursing home's current events discussion group. (Apparently most of the people who attend the group fall asleep in the middle of it.) While we were discussing it, he mentioned another patient who goes around and interviews other patients, I"m not sure to what end.
When he interviewed my brother, he asked him when did he have his stroke. There was silence on my end. Then I asked my brother, "what did you say"? (It's true that my brother has had a stroke, but he fully recovered from it and it's not the reason he is in a nursing home.) He replied that he just avoided answering the question, which I thought was pretty smart.
When he interviewed my brother, he asked him when did he have his stroke. There was silence on my end. Then I asked my brother, "what did you say"? (It's true that my brother has had a stroke, but he fully recovered from it and it's not the reason he is in a nursing home.) He replied that he just avoided answering the question, which I thought was pretty smart.
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