Old People

If my unemployment is going to end any time soon, it is going to be thanks to a member of the AARP. Last week a well-meaning man from church in his 70's referred me to a position at BU that ended up being a tenure-track professorial position! I sent my resume to the person he recommended, only to follow up later and find out I was 15 years underqualified. Whoops.

Today I met Vera, Ruth, Barbara, and Albert. They are my new friends around the corner at the nursing home in my neighborhood. Today was my first day visiting them. Boy did I enjoy myself! It wasn't without fear that I poked into their rooms this morning. Old people intimidate me. Unlike pets or children, they will yell at you or embarrass you if you accidentally cross them. They might even throw a gloppy milk carton! I guess kids could do this too, but it wouldn't be as humiliating. I decided to take a chance and signed up at the Brookline Rehabilitation Center to see what would happen.

Part of my impetus to volunteer at an Old Folks Home (still my favorite name for "Senior Care Facility") came from a comment one of my former ESL students made about the travesty of unvisited seniors in the U.S. I was struck when she reported reading that less than 10% of seniors get visited by family members each year in our country. Most of my guts came from my current unemployed status as a professional LOSER. (I am waiting to hear back from a temp agency-can you believe it?) I decided it was high time I got out of my apartment and back into society!!!

I laughed internally when the social worker who oriented me insisted that I refrain from touching any bodily fluids left on the floor or a bed, but to let the nurse clean them up instead. "Thanks for steeling me back, buddy, cuz I was really looking forward to mopping up some fluid!" An important reason why people don't visit seniors-the smell! (Not to be overlooked.) But this home is a pretty clean one and the windows look out on parks with good ventilation. My job today was to go room to room, checking in on people and introducing myself.

I botched things up a bit with a few 60 year-olds who had just had a mild stroke and were at the home for only a few days of recovery. I just about blasted them out of their wheelchairs trying to make sure my introductions were heard and understood. Their withering looks brought the volume down a few notches, and the speed/depth of our conversation back to reality. Point well taken.

But my biggest surprise was Ms. Barbara Jewett, age 76, with whom I spoke for over an hour. In spite of her age and health problems, she was so with it, by the time our conversation ended she was giving me tips on how to get a job! As I wheeled her to lunch before departing she mysteriously looked this way and that down the hall, then motioned for me to move closer. "Give your resume to...(pause, with furtive glance)...NICOLE!!!" she hissed in a voice half whispered, half mouthed. "Don't tell them I gave you her name, but I heard they were looking for someone in the business office! Just say you 'heard it through the grapevine!'"

God bless the old folks!