geriatric soap opera

I visited my grandpa yesterday in the “old folk’s home” that he lives in. Due to transprtation issues, it is only the 2nd time that I have seen him since returning from Africa. His confusion has definitely gotten worse in the last few months, which is sad.

Most of the time we were together yesterday was spent in the living room of the Maple House where he lives with about 15 other elderly people. (They don’t live in the living room, but they live in the house.) Some of them are much more coherent and active than others, and some just sit in their wheelchair all day long. It’s not the most pleasant place to hang out…a bit depressing, really.

Yesterday, Mamie, a usually sweet-tempered woman in a wheelchair, was having a bad day. She hated everybody (except for me and my grandpa, because we are “decent people”. But she told me probably avout 15 times how much she hates everyone that lives there. “I hate them, because they told me that everybody hates me. I don’t want to play their stupid binocular games anyway. I hate them.” Reminds me a bit of jr. high cliques.

While we were sitting there, Kit along with his sister, Carrie, came to visit their mother. They didn’t do much visiting with her, since she barely can hold her head up in the wheelchair, and she never talks. But this didn’t stop Kit from talking and talking and talking. About politics and how his sister was a liberal freak and wouldn’t listen to reason. He talked about her as if she weren’t sitting right next to him. Then he went on to tell me how horrible and awful his other sister is because she never comes to visit their mother. Just what I wanted to do while visiting my grandpa….get in the middle of family politics…a family that is not mine.

My grandfather was the only male in the facility for a couple of months until John moved in. The women were all quite excited when two new eligible bachelors moved in. John, apparently is not so excited to have competition. He is usually quite friendly and amiable. But one day, he was funming. He told my grandfather, “If I ever catch you with your hands on my wife again, you will regret it.” Thankfully my grandpa is pretty easy-going and was able to laugh it off, and thankfully John forgot about it by the next day. (His wife isn’t alive.)

I don’t look forward to getting old.

~Rhonda