Do I win the sweet release of death?
Well, it certainly has been a busy month at Whispering Shadows! New residents, lots of birthdays (Janice Wentmore, Ernest Wexler, and Nettie Culpepper, I’m looking at y’all!), the kids from Dashiell Hammett Middle School coming by to decorate the residents’ doors for St. Patrick’s Day and/or Easter, and visits from both the First Amalgamated Church of the Rock and the Bleeding Savior Honest-to-Gospel Missionary Temple.
We had some losses, as well, of course (Nettie Culpepper and Eunice Baumgartner, I’m looking skyward where I imagine you now are, your formerly twisted and pain-wracked forms shucked off for wings, haloes, and fingers that can hold bingo cards. Praise Be!). We wish the families, wherever they might be, peace in this time of mourning. If in fact they have any idea that Eunice and Nettie have passed.
Last Thursday’s fruit bingo was a real nail-biter! Activities coordinator Pam Schlum says she’s never seen a game go so long! “We ran out of chips and had to use whatever was at hand to cover the numbers,” Pam states. “Wadded up bits of napkins, boiled carrot medallions, which ended up being a bad idea, the small round bandaids we put over injection sites when we run out of surgical tape and gauze, and which a few of the residents are allergic to, or whose skin is so, well, you know, that when you pull them off they bruise or even bleed, you know the ones? And by the time it was over–remind me never to play blackout bingo again, don’t know what I was thinking, guess I haven’t really had my head in it since Larry took off with that trashy nurse’s aid that I knew we shouldn’t have hired in the first place–just about everybody had their boards blacked out except for one or two spots, carrot mash everywhere, the smell, well, that many of our lovely residents in one place for more than an hour, odds are somebody–or several somebodies–are going to have an accident, and then when Nettie Culpepper won that pineapple, well you could’ve knocked her over with a feather.”
Several residents have stated that Nettie’s last words were, “I’m a hundred and twelve and haven’t had my own teeth in thirty years! What the fuck am I going to do with a whole pineapple?”
Rest in Peace, Nettie. Your spirited worldview and raspy screech will be sorely missed by all of us here at Whispering Shadows.
