Nursing Home Visit

            Wednesday my wife and I went to see my aunts in the nursing home. It was a nice warm day. It was warm enough for me to wear a short sleeve shirt. There was little traffic so I drove slowly and we enjoyed the scenery.

            When we arrived at the nursing home I signed in. It was disappointing to see I was the first visitor to sign in at a little before nine in the morning. While I was at the desk my wife went to find my aunts. They were both in the day room. As soon as my younger aunt saw my wife she got up and headed for her room. My older aunt just said “glasses” so my wife headed to her room to find her glasses. She has not worn glassed for a long, long time and there were none to be found. My wife checked with a nurse who said she did not have glasses and had not worn any since the nurse had worked there. We both went back to the day room and found my aunt napping.

            We went and joined my younger aunt in her room. We talked for a while. She told us about the birds at the feeders outside her window. One of the little birds had come up earlier and kept looking at my aunt the whole time it was eating. All three feeders were empty. Two of them are huge and the other is not real small. My aunt said she was going to need some panties soon. She was also out of candy and low on sweet cakes, but had enough potato chips to last. She preferred to have us bring her something to eat rather than eat out.

            My wife and I filled up the bird feeders and then went to Fred’s and bought a few things for ourselves. They did not have a good selection of sweet cakes so we decided to do all of the shopping for my aunt at Walmart. We bought five packages of candy which have eight small bars in them and a couple of packs of sweet cakes. My aunt had said she needed size 12 panties. My wife knew they would be too small, but we bought them to satisfy her, knowing we would have to return and swap them. We stopped by Pizza Hut and got a meat lover’s pizza.

            After eating we checked a pair of her panties which she thought said size 12. It was hard to read, but it was and 18. They looked like they were a little small for her. We filled up the bird feeders and swapped the panties.

            When we left we drove over 40 miles to pick up some prescriptions for us, then about 10 miles to go by our bank and then about 10 miles home.

            The thing that makes me sad on the visit is seeing how few visitors there are at the nursing home. I know more come to visit in the evening, but not very many. The residents are in the same building 24/7. Most of them have very few visitors and some none at all. Having visitors means so much for them. Not only the visits, but being able to look forward to the next visit means a lot if the expect another visit. Think about how you would feel living in a nursing home.

            You have heard the saying about giving is better than receiving. You can remember how good both you and the person you gave a gift to felt. If you will give just a little of your time you can make a nursing home resident happy and feel real good yourself. Take a little of your time and stop by a nursing home near where you live or work or shop. You don’t have to know a resident. The help there will be glad to introduce you to someone who will cherish the visit.