TO GO HOME

“Wes”, eighty-seven, has been in a nursing home for several weeks suffering from lung disease. Due to weakness, Wes needs a lot of help with his daily activities. The hospice nurse and I met up with Wes and his wife, “Helen”, at the nursing home. They wanted information about hospice and the support that is available.

Wes’s eighty-eighth birthday is next week. The plan is to discharge him home on that day. The one concern was if Helen could care safely for him. Helen was a very young eighty-two year old. She had a strong personality and would do whatever she had to do to make sure Wes’s needs were met.

She planned on hiring daily attendant care for several hours each morning and each night. Helen had such a strong personality with a lot of humor. She was direct and to the point. Wes was very weak and didn’t say much, but when Helen’s humorous statements came out, he would look at her with such love.

The two of them were the perfect example of unconditional love. They so displayed that at the end of life, it is who’s in your life, not what. The hospice nurse and I will be going back next week to admit Wes to our program. I am looking forward to meeting up with the two of them again.

ADDENDUM: Wes was discharged home on his 88th birthday. He was so happy to be home on his special day. We, too, were very happy that he made it home.


TO GO HOME　

They both are in their eighties.
He's been sick for quite a while.
The nursing home is okay but,
he just wants to go home.

They've been together only twelve years.
This is the second marriage for both.
They were previously married to cousins.
Both widowed before they hooked up.

She says she's known him for years.
She didn't much like him back then.
Gesturing, "He had a beer in one hand,
while holding a cigarette in the other."

He smiled so deeply hearing those words.
They both laughed remembering past times.
Facing each other with love in their eyes.
It was nothing short of unconditional love.

She is determined to bring him home,
knowing he needs a lot of help.
She tells us all will be okay,
"I am a country girl. I am tough!"

His birthday is next week.
That same day, he will return home.
I asked him, "What do you wish for your birthday."
With a huge smile, he replied,
          "I just want to go home."