Showing posts with label retirement home stories. Show all posts
Showing posts with label retirement home stories. Show all posts

21 Mar 2026

FRIDAY's FAVE FIVE

The beautiful spring weather continued and as there was gymnastic on the activity program and I wasn't interested, I quickly went shopping and only returned for coffee.

 

The next day, I took advantage of the beautiful weather and wanted to try walking around the entire park, as I was feeling well. I was quite proud of myself, I didn't manage the whole park, but I did manage a little more than half of it. If only I could continue like this ! At 5 pm, I went to my room and watched a little TV.

 

After the news, I lay down in bed and read some of my old blog posts on my tablet. Sometimes I really laughed, and suddenly I remembered things I had long forgotten.

I had just turned off the light when I became uneasy and thought I heard something unusual. I took out my earplugs and turned the light on. I had forgotten to lock my room ! In the middle of the room stood a wild-looking skeleton with hair standing up, in her nightgown. Naturally, I was startled! Then I asked her what she wanted , but she could barely speak. She must have been a mentally disabled woman who had run away from somewhere. 

 Frail Old Woman Walks Onto AGT Stage – Seconds Later She Literally  Collapses Into Sand And Becomes A Mesmerising Young Goddess | He is love |  Facebook

Finally, I pushed her out of my room, into the elevator, and pressed the O button, where the two night shift male nurses were sitting. Normally, I would have taken her down, but I was still weak from my zona and also angry that I had been disturbed while trying to fall asleep, as I have difficulty doing so.

The next day, I heard that the woman was new and that she would have been better placed on the 4th floor, which is closed. She had tried to open several doors, and had caused some trouble with the scared residents. Since then I haven't seen her anymore, probably she is now staying in the closed section. 

On Wednesday, we had a meeting with the female manager and her assistant. Since only a few people dared to speak up about what is needed to be changed, they had chosen me to speak for everyone. I noticed that the manager always dodged the question and never gave a clear answer, but I kept pushing anyway. Finally, she gave an answer that was neither yes nor no. After a few days or weeks, what I had complained about was finally done. Also, I always take pictures to show her, and she always says "later," but I never give up and keep showing her the pictures. Despite the fact that I am a nagger for her, she appreciates and we understand each other very well. She is not stupid, she tries to win time for asking her superiors if they wood agree or not. I do that to !

After they left, suddenly many people started complaining about everything that was not for them personally, and I asked them why they hadn't said anything. They were acting like they were in primary school ! Despite that, we had a good laugh.

To end the week one of the three girl trainees, made a game with us concerning LOVE ! She gave us little pieces of paper where a sentence was written and we had to find a word concerning Love which fitted in the sentence. That was real fun. The best as usual was old André with his 96 years ! Real cute. Then we made fun of some ladies in their 80 who are still very active and try to find a man, but they are quite aggressive, they hug and kiss the men, and the poor guy doesn't know what to do. Good old André found a woman in his bed and was outraged. He told me he had been faithful to his wife for 70 years and now he found such an old woman in his bed. Poor André is in a wheelchair because he's so fat his legs can't carry him anymore. I nearly died laughing.

Pin by Linda Kupstas on Silly characters | Cartoon grandma, Old lady cartoon,  Cute funny cartoons 

I have to investigate some more "Love" stories ! 

 
more participants at Susanne at Living to tell the Story.
 
 
 
 
 
 

11 Oct 2025

FRIDAY's FAVE FIVE

Monday the air quality was bad, and so was I, I mean I felt bad. Fortunately I have the app on my phone who shows me the weather which is always bad and therefore the air too. For me that means not to move too much otherwise I get breathless and have to sit down. 

Outside the trees get slowly yellow and somebody has brought this beautiful branch inside. 

One of the  occupational therapist who normally works with people with mental health problems, Alzheimer's, or Parkinson's disease, represented Elinor and wanted to do yoga and sophrology with us. I immediately declined and played Scrabble on my phone while they were busy. The others all complained in my ear but participated anyway. Yoga was finally OK and they did their best. 

I do yoga exercises every morning, and I don't feel to do it again in the afternoon. Besides, I found her yoga a bit strange,  and then she wanted to show everyone sophrology. Besides me, nobody knew what it was. She explained. Solange sitting besides me, told me that she doesn't understand anything, and why she should imagine to be in a wood, she sits here and if she wants to go into the wood, just outside in our park there is a little one. I couldn't explain because everybody had to close their eyes and imagine to be in a wood.  In a monotone voice, the girl read a text about what they should smell or see in the forest. 

Solange told me she'd run into a tree, which of course made me laugh. Others fell asleep, two got up and declared they wouldn't take part in such silly things, and the rest made fun of the poor girl. "I fell," said Solange, "I tripped over a tree trunk." "You should relax and not think about anything," I whispered to her, but she thought the whole thing was so stupid that she stopped, too. 

 

I honestly poured like a cat, because I had told this girl that Sophrology was not for us. Now she knows and we had fun describing what everybody did or felt. It hadn't worked at all. 

It's understandable that when you are 80/90 and have a full life and two world wars behind you, you don't believe in such "new things". In a monotone voice, she reads a text about a forest. Solange told me she'd run into a tree, which of course made me laugh. Others fell asleep, two got up and declared they wouldn't take part in such silly things, and the rest made fun of her. "I fell," said Solange, "I tripped over a tree trunk." "You should relax and not think about anything," I whispered to her, but she thought the whole thing was so stupid that she stopped, too. They were all relieved when it was over and we got our coffee and cake. Of course the "sophrology" was the theme of the discussion and we all laughed a lot. I once tried it when I wasn't feeling well, but instead of being relaxed it had the opposite effect on me and I did a "to do" list in my head, which probably I will never do ! 

The rest of the week was similar; the weather remained gray and damp, and I didn't feel like going for my daily walk. 

We still have two of us here, a man and a woman with the lovely name Mimmi. The man isn't causing any problems; he sits in his wheelchair and sleeps. I don't understand why they put him with us. He can't join in anymore. 

Mimmi can't play either and entertains us with nonstop singing! Nothing helps: shouting, covering her mouth, pushing her, but she happily carries on singing.

Suddenly, she seemed to understand the word "itch" and pulled down her blouse to show us all her bare upper body, which was also itching. Everyone shouted, "Mimmi, pull your blouse up," and finally, her neighbor helped her button up her blouse. The few men who participated in the spectacle regretted that she wasn't younger !

You can imagine that the atmosphere in the room was extremely cheerful. The week ended with the card game UNO, which we also had a lot of fun with !

One of the staff had made my bed and I found it so cute that with the lack of time she didn't make just the bed but also put my decoration on it. 


 

 




more participants at Susanne at Living to tell the Story.