Internship Fun

Friday morning we took Richard to the airport. He was flying to Denver, then on to North Dakota for several weeks of training for his new job.  The kids were feeling a bit blue at the thought of their Daddy being gone. So I took them to work with me!  We went to the new building and played with some of the residents.  We brought puzzles and got a couple of the men to come out and join us putting them together.  First Harold arrived and Annalina and Shauntelle (my intern partner and dear friend) helped him with that.  Joseph and I walked down to Aden's room and asked if he wanted to join us. He said no, but wanted to show Joseph a bunch of his fun photos.  Giant fish he caught up in Alaska and pictures of him on his quad just a few months ago.  After that we headed back to the dining room and before long Aden came with some more of his puzzles and Joseph and I worked on it with him.  Both men got a little tired, but neither wanted to go back to their rooms.

I am so amazed by my children.  They were both so excited to go with me.  They were both patient and kind to these two elderly men.  Harold repeats himself a lot, but Annalina played along with him each time.  And Joseph was so sweet. He would pick up a puzzle piece and point to a certain area and say, "I think this might go somewhere over there" and then he'd hand it to Aden.  Aden would then find where it belonged.  At one point Joseph went to the piano and played a couple of songs he knows. We were there for about three hours and the kids loved it. When we got home they asked when we could go again. 

Today was my last day as an intern.  They were getting ready to play bingo in the old building and I went to the new building to get Harold and Aden and take them over to play.  Harold has Alzheimer's, and was very concerned about the time and about his daughter coming to visit him. He said he didn't want to go, but Hillary, the manager, asked me to see if I could get him to go. He doesn't get out very often.  This sweet man reminds me so much of my father. I asked if he wanted to go and he said no. I told him it would be fun and he asked if it was just elderly folks who would be there.  I told him mostly, but I was going to be there too.  He then told me that if I was going, he would go too.  So I walked them over and they had a great time.  Harold won several games, but was very concerned about the time and missing his daughter if she should come by.  I just reassured him each time that she knew where we were and would come find him. 

Although my internship was not all I had hoped it would be, I did enjoy getting to know some of the sweet residents.  I will miss them and will do my best to get over to visit them from time to time!