my friend Phlip

my friend Phlip

Philip is one of the men that I take care of.  At this time he is in last stage  Alzheimer’s, so he is pretty much bed ridden.  He can still carry on a conversation it is just I can never really know what we are talking about; which is fine.  I just go with the “flow” so to speak and let him take the lead in this dance, and when I do this things are fine.  After all what he really needs is a presence that he knows (at least on some level) and trust.  Yesterday after feeding him, and joking, and getting him to laugh, he did something that never happen before, he looked up at me and pulled me down and gave me a big hug.  It was quite touching and funny because he did not want to let go.  So I had to tell him about four times that I really needed to do some other work so he finally let me go and gave me a beautiful smile.  I don’t know if he is always responding to me since he will sometimes call me by his brother’s name, and once called me Mary, which got a good laugh from my co-workers.  Let me tell you with my long beard I would make for very ugly women.   In any case no matter who I am for him at any one time it makes him happy and that is the main thing.

Tonight he was excited because Placid had his door open and the TV on, and Philip thought that it was real and wanted the people in Placid’s room to come over and talk to him.  I came in and pulled up a chair since all my chores were done and we had one of  our talks that go “everywhere”.  We talked about taking the cars upstairs since that it where it belongs and then about letting the priest do their job, then he talked about his father coming in to see him and talked about work; again I was just along for the ride.

He has learned a trick.  Last night he found out how to raise his head and feet with the bed controls and he was having a good time raising both all the way up and then back again.  Drove the Nurse on duty batty, so we had to turn down the head raise function but left the leg one on so he could have at least half the fun and it seemed to please him.

I have been taking care of Philip for over ten years and it will be a source of sadness when the Lord finally calls him home.  I am so happy with my work and thankful that I have been called to do it, to try to make their final part of their life’s journey a little more pleasant and happy.

Peace

mitch