Unselfish Acts

I know I always say that I should know by know not to guess who wants to see us, but gentle readers, you know I am a slow learner sometimes...

Last night, I walked by a room with an older gentleman in it - initially, I thought he was somewhat incoherent, but turns out I was wrong as usual. He definitely had trouble speaking - but the look on his face when I walked by told me to get my booty back there in the room. I put a chair by his bed, and he just reached up and started petting Chel's ear. He could not speak - well, let me rephrase that - I could not understand him. He just sort of moaned and kept petting Chelsie. He was definitely a dog person - Chel just sat there and let him pet her. I had her on a chair and my knee on the chair as well, and she was leaning in on my knee while he was petting her ear. I was saying a prayer for cooperation from her the whole time, and divine intervention kicked in and she kept on sitting there.

About 5 minutes into our visit, the man began moaning and pointing next door - I finally figured out he was saying take her next door, the guy over there would like to see her. I told him when we were done visiting that we would go over there, that this was his time. He smiled and went back to petting her - and she ate it up. His roommate was very glad to see him as well.

It was pretty amazing to see this guy try and send us to someone else. It brought back memories of another stroke patient we saw, her name was Angel - I know I blogged about her at one point. Oddly enough, Angel's speech was grossly impaired as well and on our last visit, she told me I should go visit someone else because she was better. I told her that when she was done, we would move on, that this was her turn. She smiled.

For the last few weeks, I have been burning the candle at both ends...this was a good reminder to slow down and smell the Christmas candles.