Sunset

This past week I've been playing quite a bit on the piano.  The babies love it.  They rock back and forth to the music.  Anyways, I started playing some hymns and it brought me back to the time I was a resident aide at Sunset Manor and Village (retirement home).  I loved my job taking care of the elderly.  I was 18 when I was a RA, but I started at Sunset when I was almost 16 working in the kitchen and as a waitress (not my favorite).  Being a RA included giving baths, making beds, and helping the residents get ready for the day.
We would also do juice.  Juice is in the afternoon a hour past lunch time.  We would load a cart up with different kinds of juice and a snack.  Another resident aide and I would go door to door to all the residents and give them a snack and juice.  This was really a time to socialize with them also.  I loved talking to Ruby.  She had a thick dutch accent and was hilarious.  Another one of my favorites was Cora.  She had tons of pillows on her bed and liked them lined up, it didn't matter what order just as long as it looked nice.  Then there was Andy.  Everyone knew Andy.  He would grow tomatoes outside by his room and he had so many he gave many away.   Helen lived on the second floor.  She was a quiet resident but she was probably my favorite.  She reminded me of my piano teacher.  I would sing "you are so beautiful to me" to her every time I entered her room.  And she would giggle.  Then there was the other Helen that would give you a kiss with her wet lips every time you saw her.  I would make sure her kiss would end up on my cheek and not my lips.  Occasionally I would work in the dementia unit.  It was a small unit.  Probably about 15 people lived there.  I really liked working there.  For the most part, they lived in there own little world.  They lived in yesterday, when they were young.  I used to make peanut butter cookies with them and we would sit around the table and talk before it was time for bed.  There was one lady (I can't remember her name) who had a piano in her room.  I asked if she would play it for me and she did.  When I gave report at the end of my shift, the regular workers told me that she hadn't played that piano since moving to the unit.  I don't know why she played it that day, but she did.  There was a assisted living unit upstairs that consisted of 6 or 7 residents.  These residents required a little more help then others.  The other Helen with the wet kisses lived here.  It was not my favorite place to work but I still enjoyed it.  Whenever I would work, I would gather the residents and bring them down to the sitting room and play the piano for them.  They would request songs (some I could not play at all)  and we would sing.  That's why when I played some older hymns it brought me back to sunset.  I'm sure that all the residents I wrote about have since passed away, but they will be forever alive in my memory.