I had a rare, and confusing "late afternoon" escort today.
(When a resident of a Nursing Home, who is in a wheel chair or is mentally
Impaired must leave the Nursing Home for an outside Dr appointment, a
Staff Member must go along as "Escort")
The appt was at 3:45 in Woodstock Ga. which is about 25 mi North of the
Nursing home, "Autumn Breeze Health Care"
(where I worked at the time as a Certified Nursing Assistant) up I-75,
then off on I-575 towards Canton Ga.
I got to the Nursing Home at 2, did NOT clock in, because I had carried my
Music book and went straight back to the memory care ward, to play for those folks.
(After I had made sure the Resident who was going to the Dr was ready to go)
(A note of explanation. Autumn Breeze is a very small, very low budget Nursing Home facility.
They never pay for entertainment, so they rarely Have any, and when they do, those poor folks
back in the memory care Never get to see it. So whenever I was there, I would go early, and go back
To the memory care ward and play and sing for them, off the clock, free of charge)
When I got to the dining room, where the piano is located,
There were only two people present.
I sat down and started playing,
Sure enough the 'dancing queen' came in and started
doing her "thang" ☺
After I had played just one song, the maintenance man, who in this
case was going to drive the Nursing Home Van, came in and was talking about
What time to leave for the trip to Canton;
I said I thought 3 was plenty of time to get there, but he was paranoid about not
Knowing the route....so I played one more song, then went and clocked in.
(There were some issues with the wheelchair),
Then James, the maintenance man/driver,
said I should go ahead on the van; HE would take care of doing the lift.
When I got in there, none of the floor lock downs were in place, so by the time
He had the wheelchair coming into the van,
I had the lock downs set and ready to receive.
He said "I SURE am glad it was you coming today Jerry".
We got my Resident loaded and were on the road by 10 after 3
He had some MapQuest directions printed, that took us out of the
Nursing Home parking lot, going RIGHT through downtown
Old Marietta (the shortest route), right past Kennestone Hosp., at the
Beginning of THE worst time of day...Rush Hour!I said,
"no, turn right, go back out Austell Rd to S Cobb, turn left and
We'll go through Dobbins ARB to I-75
(this allowed us to travel at 55+mph, once we were past the first mile or so)
"I SURE am glad it was you who came along today Jerry" he said again.
So we got to the Dr, with just a little confusion, got in, saw the Dr...,
All told this took about an hour, then, when we came out to make the follow up
Appointment, it was RAINING SIDEWAYS, and I mean pouring!
I borrowed an umbrella from one of the staff,
(we only had to get from the door to the van, perhaps 12 feet).
I managed to keep the majority of the rain off the Resident, but both
Me and James were SOAKED.
The rain stopped not long after we left coming back.
The traffic going NORTH towards Canton on 575 was creeping along,
bumper to bumper.
On the other hand since we were going south, WE had nearly open
"Roads and smooth Sailing", until we got to I-75, then it got a little hairier.
I told him to get off, and slip over to Cobb Pkwy, which we took
South until I could get us back on Hwy 280 (the far end of S Cobb) and
BACK through Dobbins, and
PRESTO!
We were back to the Nursing Home.
Once more, James looked at me, shook his head, and said:
"I SURE am glad you came along Jerry!
I told them yesterday that they should just let you drive the van,
That way you could be the driver AND the Escort"
I'd been telling them that for 2 years.
Chapter Two
by
Jerry E Smith
©9/4/2018
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