GENTLEMEN OF THE OLD SCHOOL

I received a call from Dr. Pitkin one day. It seems a lady had to go to the hospital and she needed a place for her husband to stay while she was gone. They were both in their late 80”s. The problem with Albert was, he was in a wheelchair because he had no legs. Doc( I always called Dr. Pitkin, Doc) said Albert was really very good at dressing & caring for himself, so I said sure. Albert was a gentleman from the “old school” Extremely good natured man with a twinkle in his eyes and excellent manners. He really tried to take care of his own needs with little or no help. He always wore a smile and loved to talk, mostly about his wife. His wife, Lulu, was a retired school teacher and she knew Gertrude,( from a previous story.) The had taught school together for several years. Albert told us that Lulu told him to mind his manners at our place. She was also very jealous of him. He said it used to be when he went out in his garden to pull weeds, if the neighbor lady came out Lulu made him come in the house. He was really proud of her. They had never been separated and he really missed her. Their 62nd anniversary was the next day so I arranged with the hospital for Albert to call Lulu. I remember most of the conversation was “Yes, Dear”!!!!”Yes Dear”!! Than he said “ There are no young women here!!” I really loved that part.!! I must have been elderly than and just didn't know it !!The next day for lunch I served soup and sandwiches. Albert watched Gertrude very carefully. When she was almost done she picked the bowl up and drank the broth. Albert sat there a few minutes and than did the same thing. When lunch was over Albert went to his room for a nap. Than he told me “ If Gertrude can drink from the bowl, so can I and Lulu can't complain”!!! (:>)!!
It was always a pleasure to care for men who had always been “gentlemen” but than of course there are the others. The ones who have no manners or respect for themselves and the rest of the world.
I had one of them, very early in the business. I received a call from a lady who needed a place for her father who was in his 80's. He was in the hospital and was due to be discharged but could not go home. You know the answer to that one—he came the next day. Homer was definitely not from the “old school”!! He used a wheel chair and got around very slowly. Never had very many nice things to say. He was the type who hated the world. Everyone just kind of stayed clear and he stayed in his room a lot. He was married to a woman in her late thirties who had a blind daughter , 7 years old. She thought by marrying him she would inherit his house and property. He never told her 20 years ago he put everything in his son's name and he had nothing except his social security check. When he was due to be discharged from the hospital she refused to take care of him. Homer had a terrible habit of always trying to look down someones blouse. Once he even grabbed one of the aides , you know where. I finally told him if he did anything like that again I would call Dr. Pitkin and see to it he was put in a nursing home. He behaved for a while but eventually he was back to his old tricks. He had a heart attack a few months later and went to the hospital. He treated the nursing staff the same way he treated me. When attempting to put a catheter in he had a lot of horrible comments to make about the way the nurse had to hold his penis to insert the catheter. Through it all she maintained her professionalism!!! I thought how professional she was and my admiration for nurses went way up. It just goes to show all the jobs are not easy ,by any means.. .He died about two weeks later. His daughter used to stop and visit him but she said he was always like that and the daughters just didn't like to visit him. I could understand why. I always tried to treat everyone the same but there were the ones like him you just could not even give a hug!!!After he died the daughter asked me to go with her to the house and see what was left. She said his wife had moved out a month before but she was afraid to go alone. So , of course, I went with her. This is one of the worst places I ever saw. The dirty dishes were all over the floor, it looked like when you finished a meal you just pushed everything on the floor. The clothing was a least a foot deep in every room. Some of the clothes still had price tags on them and the only thing I could think of was someone shop lifting. How a blind child lived here was beyond me. I could not figure out how a blind child walked around in this filthy mess nor how Homer got around in his wheelchair!!! In the mess was about 75 “taped stories” from the blind, which evidently was sent for the child to listen to. I did help gather all these up and took them to the post office. You could not see the floor anywhere. It made you think the one who got the worst end of the whole mess was the little 7 year old blind child......
Love Red