The problem with having two quiet days at work is that there isn’t that much to write about.
On Saturday one of the first jobs was to someone whose name my crewmate recognised.
“He’s a nice old boy,” he told me. “When his wife was alive she’d call us every time he coughed. He’s deaf and blind – used to be a British champion boxer. He’s a big fella, so I hope we don’t have to carry him downstairs. We don’t see him much now, he hasn’t called us out in ages”.
The patient was sitting alone in his flat, scattered around him were books that he could no longer read. In the corner was a television that probably hadn’t been turned on in years. Just a frail man sitting quietly in his chair marking time. On the table next to his chair was the remains of some ‘meals on wheels’. I could see that he had once been a ‘solid’ man, like the men who worked on the docks – tall and thick with muscle. He wasn’t that man anymore. He was frail, shaking, and seemed nervous of everything, not something that you’d expect from an ex-boxer.
It was hard getting his history, as I needed to lean close to his ear and shout. At one point he let out a hacking cough just as I was leaning next to him – so we took him to hospital with a possible chest infection.
Our last job of the day was back to the same address – he’d been discharged from hospital and just wanted someone to ‘check his pulse’.
We didn’t mind.
Oh, man. (speechless for a bit)It could be any of us in a few years.
Sometimes I think what this world needs is a cure for the common cold and a cure for old age.
Your comments remind me of the fact that I'm getting old! I can't do everything I used to be able to do when I was 21, and I've only just go to the top of the hill!Looks like being in the FRU is much more busy than the truck.
No need to worry. When you're over the top, it's downhill all the way!
A sad little moment.At least you reminded me to ring my Mum for the first time in a week. By the way, she's getting a new hearing aid and it'll be ready on the 27th. Ten minutes in a busy day for me, who knows what on a grey, cold day for her
'Tis why they call these years, the Golden years, it be because ye get rid of the gold that ye ever got.Bard:JAQUES: All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances,
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages. At first, the infant,
Mewling and puking in the nurse's arms.
Then the whining schoolboy, with his satchel
And shining morning face, creeping like a snail
Unwillingly to school. And then the lover,
Sighing like a furnace, with a woeful ballad
Made to his mistress' eyebrow. Then a soldier,
Full of strange oaths and bearded like the pard,
Jealous in honor, sudden and quick in quarrel,
Seeking the bubble reputation
Even in the cannon's mouth. And then the justice,
In fair round belly with good capon lined,
With eyes severe and beard of formal cut,
Full of wise saws and modern instances;
And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts
Into the lean and slippered pantaloon,
With spectacles on nose and pouch on side;
His youthful hose, well saved, a world too wide
For his shrunk shank, and his big manly voice,
Turning again toward childish treble, pipes
And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all,
That ends this strange eventful history,
Is second childishness and mere oblivion,
Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything
Poor auld soul, whats the betting his family dont bother with him – or there arnt any of them left and apart from meals-on-wheels dropping a dinner on him and going, you were the only people to take the time to talk to the man.Lonliness coupled with old age and a deterioration in what we used to be – what a Bastard!
I found this so sad, society these days seems not to care about the the elderly, they have served their purpose and are no longer valuable seems to be the way.I look after an elderly aunt who doesn't live near her own family and the only visits she gets are mothering sunday, christmas and her birthday; the rest of the year she only gets phone calls from them.
If only the world cared…. I'm glad you were there reynolds,
Sage
Tom – glad you were there, and truly there.Glenda
Now there's a blast from the past, just to check I'm thinking of the right guy is it “Con” who lives just down the road from 892?DSO
They've got old age pensions, nobody needs to care about them anymore since the government will. *sigh* Republicans in my country are certain that gay marriage will ruin family, but I'm convinced it's Social Security that's already done it…convinced kids their folks didn't need them, and vice versa.