ALARM SYSTEM DOG

This little story is about the friendship between patient and care giver with the help of a animal.

Alarm System Dog

 

My clients name was Mary,whom I've had the pleasure of taking care of for two years. She was a retired R.N., she had round the clock caregivers and when I arrived at her front door, she was sitting in her kitchen drinking a cup of coffe and smoking a cigarette, she told the other care giver that was there,"Me and this one is going to get alone."

From that day until she died we got along great. We became like sisters, although she was much older than I.She was seventy-nine years old.

I also had the pleasure of taking care of her three toy poodles, Dolly, Penny(the alarm system dog),and Ruby. I would have to feed them and give them their medicine,and I also played with them I would sit in the middle of the floor and wrestle with them.

Now every time that Mary would be doing something that she weren't suppose to do Penny would bark until I come in to see what's the matter. Penny was also deaf.

Mary loved to see her girls(caregivers) interact with her dogs.She hand picked six girls to take care of her.She made each one of us sign our name to a promise note that we would be with her until she die.

Mary and I argued constantly.  She would ask if I wanted or needed something and when I told her no,she always asked if that was the only word in the whole dictionary that I knew. This is what usually started the arguments. I asked the other private duty girls if she did that to them, and they all told me yes.

She had one daughter and two sons, and we got along good. Matter of fact they loved to hear us arguing. Like one Mothers Day her oldest son took her and I out with the family for a Mother's Day dinner, and when Mary and I arrived at the resteraunt the family were waiting on us outside,as we all walking in Mary and I started arguing about who was going to eat first. Her oldest son told me to enjoy myself, that he would push Mary around in her wheel chair.

I went to fix my plate. When I got back she looked at me and said."Where's my plate." Here's another argument.She told me " I can do it myself."

Every Saturday Mary and I with her daughter would go to Crackle Barrels for breakfast,and there we would argue. The employees there are used to hearing us argue, they call us the arguing team.

One particular Saturday at Crackle Barrel, I saw some pillows I liked. Mary asked me if I wanted them. I told her no.When we finished breakfast, she secretly told her daughter to buy them.I did not even know about it until we arrived back to the house. When I went through the things she had bought I saw the pillows.

She looked at me above her glasses and started laughing.

"See, you can't tell me what to do. If I want to buy you something I can."

It was hard to argue with a four-footed, red haired person.She didn't have any problems calling my husband on me. In addition, he would agree with her. One Sunday my husband came over to her house to cut her lawn,and she told him that we argued all the time.

In the middle of the day,Mary loved to watch her favorite shows such as Matlock, The Match game, and Little House On The Prairie.

She died November of 2005,and a part of me went with her. The three dogs were cremated and went to heaven with her. She was in a reddish-pink dress with the casket matching and a braccelet with seven silver hearts on it. It contained all her dogs names on it. You see pink was her favorite color and I mean it. The lights in the funeral parlor where her bodied layed was even pink.

She was not just my arging buddy, she was a dear friend. I will always love and miss her.She helped me decided what to do in my life. When you take care of some one, it's very hard not to get attached to them. 

In some jobs like this the private duty agency will tell the employees not to get attached. However, if you are a caring person, that will be hard to do.

  MY QUOTE

"DON'T LET THE AGENCY TELL YOU NOT TO GET ATTACHED TO SOMEONE, BECAUSE,GETTING ATTACHED IS PART OF WHAT WE CALL LOVE IS THAT NOT ONE OF THE GREATEST GIFTS FROM GOD?

Author's Note

tell me what you think. ESPECIALLY MY QUOTE AT THE END.

Reviews

[Sydelle Houston]

I can most definitely relate to your story. I had to be my grandmother's caregiver for the last six years of her life, and even though I loved her, I didn't really like her or see eye to eye. If it wasn't for the companion I hired to be with her when I was at work, I would have never known she had fallen and broke her hip the first time. She ran through nine companions before settling with this woman who looked as though she needed an aide herself. Her companion was so depressed when I told her that she wouldn't be returning home because they had become friends. I asked my grandmother why she got along so well with her, and she told me because she couldn't understand a single word she said, but they understood "The Young & the Restless"! I also worked in a CHHA for a couple of years and saw what the aides went through when the people in their care expired. I have to give visiting nurses, home health aides and home attendants a great deal of credit, caring for a person who is not family who becomes like family is a God given talent. They learn in time to detach, because there are so many others who need care. Believe it or not, doctors go through it as well, I learned how to read the faces of the surgeons I worked with and knew when they lost someone they didn't expect to. Not all in the health care industry are in it for the money.

Although I was a little alarmed to read her pets were cremated and went to heaven with her, I enjoyed reading your life piece. Of course I'm closing one eye on those few typos I see..... ;-)

[MichelleSun]

I love the story. It is so real and pure. I can see the characters clearly. I dont like the quote at the end. too wordy and stuffed.

[Nancy Lee Shrader]

Well done girl. Well done

[Flow~]

It is true in those industries people are told not to get attached, sometimes though we get attached even if we don't want too. I agree that if one cares and is attached their service will be just that much better than an unattached person doing it for a pay check. Giving unconditionally is hard to do, it is Gods quality too. I think what you wrote is beautiful and I hope you continue to be you!