Dad is set to mark his first year in assisted living. It’s going so well and his health and spirits are thriving. He’s also managed to make friends, namely a pair of mild Trumpian males who have shifted their loyalties to DeSantis. They typically avoid political discussions, but I have a feeling Dad might win the two men over from the dark side by the time the election rolls around.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I visit Dad four or five times a week and we discuss current events, my house maintenance projects, poetry, his personal history, and the state of the facility and its frequent staffing issues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Not once have I felt it a chore to visit. I feel fortunate to have this unique opportunity to spend time with him and discover what goes on inside an assisted living center for middle-income seniors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What goes on is fascinating but I rarely write about it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The other day, however, I observed something between two residents that truly moved me so much emotionally that I thought it worth writing about here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I was standing outside the facility on a hot afternoon, waiting to meet Dad’s pedicurist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A males resident in a wheelchair was facing the sun. Sitting in a chair next to him was a female resident. He extricated a Hershey’s chocolate bar from his shirt pocket and extended it toward her. He said something as he did this but I didn’t catch it. He was so frail he could barely hold up the bar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I noticed the candy bar drooping toward the ground, obviously melted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The woman grabbed it as if she was shaking a hand. She began to unwrap it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Have you ever tried unwrapping a melted chocolate bar? I have, several times. It is nearly impossible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The woman managed to unwrap half it of, and took a bite, or was it a drink? She said thank you<\/em> and handed it back to him.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Dad is set to mark his first year in assisted living. It’s going so well and his health and spirits are thriving. He’s also managed to make friends, namely a pair of mild Trumpian males who have shifted their loyalties to DeSantis. They typically avoid political discussions, but I have a feeling Dad might win […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8480,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8479","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-meditations","has-post-title","has-post-date","has-post-category","has-post-tag","has-post-comment","has-post-author",""],"builder_content":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8479","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8479"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8479\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8481,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8479\/revisions\/8481"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8480"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8479"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8479"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8479"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}