Waking Wilfred Parker
A FRIENDSHIP I NEVER EXPECTED — & NEVER FORGOT
When I was 19 years old, I never could have imagined that I would form a true friendship with a woman in her mid-80s. But it happened in the most astonishing and unexpected way and still evokes a happy memory in me all these years later. Her name was Maude Parker, a sweet, gracious, petite woman who, when I first met her, seemed ancient to me. The only reason we met in the first place was because her husband, Wilfred, was a patient in the convalescent hospital where I worked for a time as an orderly.
The wing I was assigned to had ten private rooms, five on each side of the hall. As an orderly, I occupied the lowest rung of the ladder, with nurses’ aides above that, and though there was a physician who visited patients on a regular basis, it was the skilled nurses (RNs and LVNs) who ran the show.
A word about the duties of an orderly in that facility: Being the lowest-level position, it carried with it responsibility for the most menial jobs. These included everything from cleaning up vomit, changing bedpans, emptying urinary catheter bags, changing soiled sheets (and soiled is a true euphemism here), lots of mopping, moving patients through the halls in their wheelchairs, brushing their teeth (or, more commonly, brushing their dentures and making sure they were properly submerged in a glass of water with Polident to clean them), shaving the men, washing and combing patients’ hair, and more.
Overall, you could say my job was to help the patients stay clean, dry, and comfortable; clean up any and all messes; and make sure their rooms were tidy.
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