Clearview

[Guest guest]

It had been about three years since Mrs. Dewitt had come to

Clearview, when Mrs. D'Angelo checked in. Clearview was

not a really bad place to be, as nursing homes went, but it was

not exactly upscale either. The staff tried hard to see that the

patients were given good care but there just seemed to never

be enough hours in the day. Mrs. Dewitt was a problem from

the beginning, what with losing her foot to diabetes and the

Alzheimer's, she was becoming increasingly belligerent and her

care was often given to the newbies on the ward just to see

if they could cut the mustard. She received almost no visitors

and those that came, she rarely recognized. Getting her in and

out of her chair for the bathroom had become so labor intensive

and and such a trying chore for the staff that she was fitted with

diapers and changed twice a day. At eighty five it began to look

to most on the ward that she wouldn't see eighty six but that was

before the arrival of Mrs. D'Angelo.

Mrs. D'Angelo was a sturdy seventy six when she had the stroke

that brought her to Clearview. It had taken most of the strength of

her left arm and leg, left her face in a perpetual grimace and made

her speech difficult to understand. She could however still get

around

without a cane or walker but with a very pronounced limp as her left

leg

turned in.

It was really chance that allowed these two to meet as much as

anything else. All the rooms were set up for double occupancy, but

patients were rarely placed in Mrs. Dewitt's room because her

constant

raving and irascible nature was upsetting to those placed there, even

 

temporarily, but as it happens a Temp was on duty in admissions

that day and Mrs. D'Angelo was assigned to Mrs. Dewitts room.

 

And in this crossing of paths is found our simple story.

 

To Be Continued

 

Mace