Special Kind of Friends

Friends If you know someone who is in a nursing home and you have a half hour or so to spare, make it a point to stop in and visit.

You’ll learn you will probably gain as much from the experience as the resident you’re visiting.

A recent visit to Care One at Middletown on Route 36 between Highlands and Atlantic Highlands just proved that to be so.

There were men hard at work checking the front door of the building; it had been operating off-kilter and the administrator wanted to be sure it was taken care of. It was.

Once inside, there was a friendly, genial, talkative resident sitting in the lobby, eager to say hello to everyone who came, share a laugh or tell a story. She was cute.

The lobby itself looked great for the Halloween season. The piano was covered in spider webs with an extraordinarily talented, apparently, skeleton sitting on the piano stool . Makes you laugh as you pass through en-route to visit.

Each of the day rooms, the big rooms in each section where residents sit and play games or enjoy the company of others, are also decorated for Halloween. A resident will wave hello, or ask how you’re doing. One will even tell you about the aide who brings in her dog that keeps everyone happy.

In some of the main rooms, there are several residents busy at coloring…Halloween décor, of course. They’re eager to show you their pumpkins and ghosts, their spiders and skeletons. It’s obvious they enjoy coloring and can be creative.

But going into the main dining room is the best. Before noon, Mary Beth, one of the employees in the activities department, was busy setting tables; she had varied colored placemats at each setting, along with silverware and napkins neatly wrapped. She had already decorated each table with an adorable and downright friendly looking Skeleton sitting amid a floral arrangement.

When she was complemented on the table décor, she smiled, said thanks, and added, “it was no work to do. This is for my friends.”

My friends. To Mary Beth, activities person, they weren’t patients. They weren’t residents. They were friends.

I stopped in to tell the administrator how great it sounded to hear Mary Beth talk about her friends. He agreed, adding how excellent she is at her job throughout the day. But she’s not the only one, he offered. To this staff at Care One, some of whom have been there since it was the old King James Care Center, some even there from the time Duke Black of Conners Hotel fame was the administrator, that’s exactly what the residents are. Friends. Not elderly people to be taken care of. Simply friends.

That was what put the finishing touch on a nursing home visit that felt good. Perhaps residents enjoyed the visit. Perhaps they were grateful for the break in the routine.

To me, it left a great feeling to know that to the staff, they weren’t taking care of patients or residents. They were taking care of friends.

Tired of Facebook? You can also Find ViniVidiScripto on the Following Platforms …

Friends