The Renegade Alzheimer (Episode I of Adventures in Arts and Alzheimer’s)

I think I’ve mentioned here before that I intended to spend my extra hour or so a week with members of the Alzheimer’s ward. Well, I made it up there for the first time Monday. It’s an interesting place. Every exit is secure. Even the nurses’ station has gates on it to keep the residents out. Compared to most of the nursing units, the Alzheimer’s unit is pretty nice, but if you consider the fact that these residents are never allowed to leave, the little extra sunshine and decorations seem kind of feeble.

As I mentioned, I successfully made time to get up there last Monday and asked the nurses if anyone might want to go out for a walk or downstairs for lunch in the normal cafeteria. They informed me that there was one gentleman who was about to have lunch but loved going outside so much that he’d probably rather have lunch later. It turns out that she was right. So, he and I took a spin into the sunshiny and brisk day. We were both enjoying ourselves, but it wasn’t long before I was chilled and he was freezing so we returned to the buildings to warm up and get my coat for him.

We ventured out once again the 15 minuets I had left before I need to be in crafts. This time we ventured out a back door. There turned out to be a small step to bus he insisted we should try it. We navigated that and as I turned around I saw three more full sized steps in from of us. Let’s just say that I found out wheel chairs work relatively well on steep grassy slopes… just take it backward.

Join us next time for more Adventures in Arts and Alzheimer’s.

Dead Fish and Fishy Students

The fish died. This was a sad and shocking event in crafts this week. Crafts and hobbies had 3 fish swimming in a tank large enough to handle 3 or 4 more. So, not surprisingly, the gold fish that had been in there for about 6 years had grown to around 10 inches long. This average goldfish of extraordinary size died last Monday. This caused several distraught residents and a little more work for Joe, the regular staffer from crafts and hobbies. I wonder if they’ll get any new fish now…

Honestly, that was the most exciting thing that has happened in the last two weeks in crafts and hobbies. Otherwise, there has just been a lot of working on projects like clothes for a teddy bear, false floral bouquets (as always), antique toys, and bracelets and necklaces.  The distinct advantage of my situation is that I can be helpful to all the residents, but if they are all happily working on project, I can study. This is especially useful since I volunteer on Mondays and have exams two Monday nights per month throughout the semester.

I’m a little frustrated with the fact that no one seems to find it necessary to work in this class. I mean, seriously. Sure, it’s easier than most other classes and it may not “directly” apply to each person’s  major, but if you commit to something, you owe it your best. When the teacher assigns 11 pages of reading and less than a quarter of the class reads it, then they are wasting their time and his. Sure, we all have to learn fairly independently in this class, that’s kind of the point. It’s accelerated composition because we don’t discuss the “how” in class, but we should all still read the “how” in the book and learn what we can.

ENGR 131 Flow Chart

The estimable Greg Reifke created this beast. Well done sir.

BINGO and Old People

I’ve played bingo before, but it’s been a while. I was with a bunch of old people the last time I played bingo. We were visiting an old lady we knew and visited at least weekly. She happened to be playing bingo one afternoon and they let me join in. I was about ten years old and I won!!! I chose a stuffed, white unicorn off the prize cart and decided that I liked bingo a lot. In the intervening eight years, I’d never played bingo.

Today, I played bingo again. There is a bingo at the Veterans’ Home every Sunday afternoon and usually one on holidays too.  Today happens to be a miniscule, but government recognized, holiday; I think it’s Columbus Day or something like that. Anyway, most of the staff have the day off and so they have a bingo because many of the residents will attend and enjoy it, but it doesn’t take many staff members to put one on.

I arrived and had some difficulty figuring out where to be and such, but was soon put to work going to get the weaker residents and pushing them down to the auditorium where the bingo would be. Once we were all ready for the bingo, I sat down next to Bruce* who has lost both of his legs and most of the movement in his arms to chronic sickness since arriving at the home over a decade ago.

I was happy to be able to work with Bruce throughout the bingo, but it was genuinely sad to see his lack of ability to control himself. I saw tears in his eyes multiple times because he couldn’t even lift his arm and push over the tab on a bingo card or muster up enough of a voice to tell me what floor of the building he lives on. One of the other volunteers told me that when she started there over a decade ago, his sons used to come take him for walks and to go fishing in the pond. Now he can’t even play bingo by himself. May you find grace and peace, sir.

*Please note that names have been deliberately changed to comply with HIPPA requirements.

Crafts, Hobbies, and Cats (108)

If you know me very well, or pretty much at all, you know I’m not very much of an artsy fartsy kind of a guy. In fact, I think it would be a stretch to say I’ve made anything pretty or cute this year, and the year is 85% gone. The fact I made 10 out of 12 months into a statistic, almost subconsciously is perhaps more revealing than anything else I could say.  All this to say, I’ll be going in a couple days to do my third Monday afternoon in the Crafts and Hobbies room at IVH.

The people who visit me seem to be a fairly religious group. Charlie, for example, has made dozens, perhaps a hundred false floral bouquets. He loves what he does and hoped they’d sell well at the sale they have at the annual state wide VFW reunion. That sale was today, so I’m sure I’ll hear how it went on Monday. The reason it’s important that their crafts sell well is because that is how the Crafts and Hobbies department justifies its extra programing costs, they sell the crafts made. 

One of the residents’ favorite parts of Crafts and Hobbies (besides Charlie and his flowers and Harold and his paintable clay figurines) are the cats. Rascal and Lucy keep everyone entertained.  Rascal is a slightly scrawny, male cat who loves attention. Rascal also loves the pillows some of the residents have on their wheel chairs. If one of them sits in a regular chair to work, he’s sure to crash out on their wheel chair. That is, he’ll take a nap there if he’s not too busy laying on my physics or chemistry book I’m trying to read between helping residents. Lucy is a little more timid and refined. She doesn’t like walkers, carts, or wheel chairs. She doesn’t even like being walked up to very much. But if she’s on a table, she’s happy to let you pet her, a lot.

If you couldn’t tell, I’m really enjoying it. It’s so peaceful and nice in that little, colorful room with the big windows.