A visit to the nursing home.
Sheila must have fallen down. She is in a wheel chair and screaming. "No. No. No." but no one is doing anything to her. The nurses wheel her away.
Marianne is speaking nonstop in Polish looking directly into my face expecting an answer or a comment.
My father is asleep sitting up on the couch.
Some very soothing classical music is playing.
Sheila must have fallen down. She is in a wheel chair and screaming. "No. No. No." but no one is doing anything to her. The nurses wheel her away.
Marianne is speaking nonstop in Polish looking directly into my face expecting an answer or a comment.
My father is asleep sitting up on the couch.
Some very soothing classical music is playing.
All these people are very old, 90 and 100 or more. They all have
dementia to one degree or another and cannot maintain themselves with
cleanliness or anything else really.
They are all incontinent.
But it is a nice place. It is decorated and designed very nicely. Like a fancy hotel. The nurses are very, very kind and loving.
There are a lot of planned activities throughout the day, bus trips and eating out at restaurants.
My father wakes intermittently from his napping and starts talking all sorts of things. All simply from the concoctions of his mind.
A meeting he has to go to. He needs to find the keys to his car (which he hasn't had since 2012), and reporting that his father visited him yesterday. My father is 97 that would make his father about 125.
Joan is off to the side hugging a baby doll which she carries all the time. Joan is very effulgent. She is hugging the doll and smiling, lighting up the room.
Edith is slumped over biting her nails.
And Janet must have had a bad day. She looks terrible. Her coloring is off and her face is very tight and drawn.
What to do with this crowd?
We are sitting together in the front room.
What can I say to them? It is not possible to have a conversation about anything.
Hand in bead bag. All I have is the Holy Name.
As I chant and chant and chant: Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare / Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare... Joan is looking even more effulgent and nodding her head in approval. Marianne stops shouting Polish at me and curls up on the couch peacefully resting. Edith stops biting her nails and watches me very intently. Janet is still slumped over in her wheel chair but she looks a little more relaxed. My father smiles at me and shrugs his shoulders and nods, "yup."
Japa was so ecstatic. Krishna all I have is Your holy name. You're all I have.
They are all incontinent.
But it is a nice place. It is decorated and designed very nicely. Like a fancy hotel. The nurses are very, very kind and loving.
There are a lot of planned activities throughout the day, bus trips and eating out at restaurants.
My father wakes intermittently from his napping and starts talking all sorts of things. All simply from the concoctions of his mind.
A meeting he has to go to. He needs to find the keys to his car (which he hasn't had since 2012), and reporting that his father visited him yesterday. My father is 97 that would make his father about 125.
Joan is off to the side hugging a baby doll which she carries all the time. Joan is very effulgent. She is hugging the doll and smiling, lighting up the room.
Edith is slumped over biting her nails.
And Janet must have had a bad day. She looks terrible. Her coloring is off and her face is very tight and drawn.
What to do with this crowd?
We are sitting together in the front room.
What can I say to them? It is not possible to have a conversation about anything.
Hand in bead bag. All I have is the Holy Name.
As I chant and chant and chant: Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare / Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare... Joan is looking even more effulgent and nodding her head in approval. Marianne stops shouting Polish at me and curls up on the couch peacefully resting. Edith stops biting her nails and watches me very intently. Janet is still slumped over in her wheel chair but she looks a little more relaxed. My father smiles at me and shrugs his shoulders and nods, "yup."
Japa was so ecstatic. Krishna all I have is Your holy name. You're all I have.
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