Caregiving Story

At the time I was living in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and was commuting each day down to Pueblo, Colorado for my Nursing Assistant classes when I met my adorable little JuneBug. Two of our four weeks of classes had already flown by and we were now doing the clinical part of our training and one of our first challenges was to be assigned one resident each day for the entire time we were to be there during clinicals, so that by the end of those last two weeks we would have a handful of residents under our care. Exciting! I could NOT wait to get started! Well, low and behold, my first resident was a precious little 78-year-old who just lit up my heart. One day we were in the dining room and I was assisting her with her meal and her clothing protector kept coming undone. I would quietly just reattach it and continue with the task at hand. Finally, she just plain as day, and as loudly as she could, announced that it wasn't that the velcro was messed up, but it was that she had no boobs to hold it up! HA HA HA!! Everybody in there stopped eating and turned in our direction. Ohh boy, was I embarrassed! But my little JuneBug just kept on eating as if what she had said wasn't anything out of the ordinary. Ok, so this story is probably one of those 'You-had-to-have-been-there' kind of things. She really was a blessing to me. Each day I was there with her, she would hold my hand and beg me to take her pulse and check her blood pressure because she knew that was one of the daily things we had to monitor. After all the giggles and jokes, she would become real mellow and would look me right in the face and say: "I love you so much honey, you are like a granddaughter to me. I've always wanted a granddaughter. You have shown me so much respect since you have been here with me, and I greatly appreciate it...I really do." When we were all finished with our clinical assignments, I sadly had to say goodbye. We both cried very hard but were really thankful to have met one another. I still to this day think of her. She may be up in heaven now, I'm not sure...but wherever she is, God Bless her and I will never forget my little JuneBug.