Chapter 20

The circadian cycle is not twenty-four hours, but varies from person to person. Some people have a much longer cycle than other people do. For them, fitting into the normal daily schedule can be difficult and for those unfortunate ones, mornings can be the roughest part of the day. For Ed, mornings had always been rough. After the time in Antarctica, he had slipped into an exaggeration of his natural cycle and returning to the normal daily schedule was tough.

Still half asleep, he wandered out of his room wondering for a moment where he was. Following his nose, he found the coffeepot and poured himself a cup. Standing there, he drank it down as quickly as he could tolerate the hot beverage. The fog slowly lifted from his brain, but not sufficient to make him aware of his surroundings. He refilled the cup and drank some more of the coffee, feeling the caffeine take effect.

Turning, he was greeted by the smiling figures of Bill and his girlfriend, Liz. Bill said, “Your morning habits haven’t changed a bit.”

“Huh?”

Liz giggled while watching the naked man swaying in front of them trying desperately to wake. Bill had warned her, but she hadn’t believed that Ed would be that slow to wake in the morning. As he drank his coffee, she asked Bill, “Do you think he knows that he’s naked?”

Bill answered, “No, but he won’t be embarrassed about it when he does wake up.”

After yawning while stretching, Ed uttered, “Morning.”

Together, Bill and Liz replied, “Good Morning.”

Looking into the coffee cup, Ed realized that it was empty again. He went back to the coffeepot and refilled his cup. Getting closer to being alert, he took his time with this cup. As he sipped, he asked, “Where am I?”

Chuckling, Bill answered, “You’re in Miami.”

Details of the flight into Miami returned to Ed and the misery that he had experienced the day before. He took another sip of his coffee and said, “Sorry, I’m not usually this bad in the morning.”

“Yes, you are,” replied Bill.

“Okay, maybe I am,” admitted Ed. Looking down at his naked body, he added, “Oh, my. I’m not dressed.”

Liz giggled as she checked out the size of his package. When Bill had told her that Ed and John were both very well endowed, she hadn’t believed him. Now that she saw it, she was interested in seeing it much closer. Bill had suggested that they offer Ed a chance to spend some time with the two of them and she decided that she was going to take Bill up on that suggestion. She asked, “What are the plans for today?”

Bill answered, “I was going to suggest that we take Ed to see the shelter this morning and take it easy the rest of the day.”

“Sounds good to me,” said Ed. The next morning he was flying back to Arizona. Until then, he was more than happy to visit with Bill and Liz. Bill had been a friend while working at the house and Liz was an attractive woman.

Liz said, “I hope you like French Toast.”

“I love French Toast. I hope you make it with real store bought bread,” said Ed.

While Liz looked puzzled, Bill laughed at the comment. He explained, “Marguerite always does everything with homemade bread. Ed’s tastes tend to run a little plainer than her cooking.”

Smiling, Ed said, “She still gets mad when I ask for the canned Alphabet Soup.”

“I think the maddest that I’ve ever seen her is the day when you asked for Creamed Chipped Beef on toast,” added Bill with a smile. The highly trained Chef had never seen the recipe for that dish and spent almost a whole day looking for it. When she found out that it was sometimes called Shit On A Shingle she exploded.

“Yeah, she refused to cook anything that could ever be referred to as Shit because she knew that I would tease her about that for years,” said Ed as he chuckled. It had been years since he had any of that.

Liz, looking at Ed and realizing there was some truth in his desire, asked, “Would you like that for lunch?”

“You bet. There are just some things you can’t get a gourmet cook to prepare,” answered Ed.

Ed returned to his bedroom while Liz prepared breakfast. Once there, he dressed in preparation for a trip to visit the Alzheimer’s Shelter that Bill had started. That Bill was proud of the facility was a good sign. He returned to the living room in time to hear Liz call out, “It’s ready.”

He followed the sound of the voice to the dining room. It was nothing more than an extension of the kitchen, but it was a nice comfortable area. The kitchen table was solid oak with a simple checkered blue and white tablecloth. There were three settings with a plate of French Toast in the middle with a bottle of artificial maple syrup. Ed smiled at the spread and said, “This looks great.”

They talked as ate. Ed asked, “So Liz, how did you meet this rascal?”

Smiling at Bill with adoration in her eyes, Liz answered, “My father has Alzheimer’s and I put him in the shelter during the days when I was at work. After I while, I started leaving him there overnight knowing that he would be well taken care of. I just needed an occasional night off. Now, he lives there all the time.”

Bob said, “The major problem for families of Alzheimer’s patients is getting time for themselves. The patient needs twenty-four hour a day care. They’ll get up in the middle of the night and wander off if you aren’t watching them.”

“It’s really a tragic disease,” agreed Ed.

Liz said, “I think you’ll agree that this is one of the nicest places in the country. It’s clean and well staffed. Every patient has a radio transmitter around their ankle so that if they do wander off, they can be found. The stage four and five patients have televisions, a fishing pond, and dances. The stage six patients need a lot of care and we have one caregiver per four patients. The stage seven patients are basically intensive care patients requiring full time care.”

Bill said, “We augment the staff with family members. We ask that each family provide two evenings or one day of service each week. It actually does a couple of things, it assures family members that their loved ones are being taken care of to a satisfactory degree. It also saves us some money on staff.”

It sounded to Ed like they had really thought out the program in great detail. He said, “It sounds good to me.”

When they had finished breakfast, Ed went to the shelter with Bill. Liz stayed behind to do a little housecleaning. On the drive over, Ed said, “I like Liz. I think you found a keeper there.”

Smiling, Bill said, “After living in your house for a couple of years, I had an idea what to look for in a woman.”

“So what are the rules of your household?” asked Ed wondering if he had adopted the same rules of the Carter Clan.

“If it harm none, then do it. Protect the weak from the strong,” answered Bill with a smile.

“Those are good rules, aren’t they?” replied Ed, pleased to hear that Bill had left the house with a little of John’s wisdom.

It wasn’t long before they reached the shelter, since Bill had selected his house in a neighborhood that was less than five minutes from it. Ed had expected a building that looked like a nursing home. Instead, the front looked like a house with a well- manicured lawn. Entering the facility, the front room was large with a wide screen television and very comfortable looking chairs. Several patients were seated in the chairs watching a television.

As they went further into the facility, Ed noticed by the strange bulges in the clothes that many of the patients were wearing pampers. Many of these patients weren’t that old, but it was easy to see that they couldn’t remember much. A woman in her early fifties was crying by a door to the outside patio. Bill went over to her and asked, “Mrs. Harris, what’s the matter?”

“I can’t remember how to get out.”

Putting a hand on her shoulder, Bill asked, “Would you like some hot chocolate? Maybe taking a minute or two away from here, you’ll remember.”

As the woman thought about it, Bill signaled a woman wearing a bright yellow tee shirt. In huge black writing across the front and back, was the name of the woman. Bill said, “Let Judy take you to get some hot chocolate.”

As Judy led the elderly woman away, Bill came over to Ed and said, “When a patient gets upset, we don’t argue with them. We try to redirect their attention. It seems to help. If a patient is argumentative all day, we make sure that the doctor gives them a thorough examination that afternoon. Often times, they are actually ill and that triggers bad behavior. It’s a whole lot better to give them antibiotics rather than behavior affecting drugs.”

Ed looked around and said, “I notice that all of the staff and volunteers have yellow shirts with their name on it.”

Nodding, Bill said, “Yes. If all the staff dresses in the same distinctive manner and has their name on their clothes, the patient doesn’t have to remember their name. Even the delusional patients are able to identify staff.”

A couple of pagers went off and one of the staff members shouted, “I’ll get it.”

A puzzled Ed watched as she headed outdoors. Turning to Bill, he asked, “What happened?”

Bill said, “One of the patients is trying to leave the grounds. She’ll intercept them and bring them back. Usually, we only have to chase a particular patient down four or five times before they forget how to get outside. We have a puzzle at each door that they have to solve. The puzzles get progressively harder the farther they get from the building. When their cognitive abilities degrade to the point where they can’t get out, we know that it’s time to consider moving them into the next ward.”

Impressed, Ed said, “That sounds pretty good.”

“It’s not perfect, but it does prevent us from have to lock everyone up or having to chase everyone down,” replied Bill. He looked around at the room and said, “We do everything we can to allow them to keep their dignity, but this disease strips it away from them so fast it’s incredible. There are some medications that can slow down the progress, but doesn’t cure it or halt it.” Bill looked sad for several minutes as he reflected on the nature of the disease. His father had moved into the late stages and could no longer walk or feed himself.

Ed and Bill walked around the facility. In the wing reserved for stage six patients, everyone wore simple gowns because they couldn’t dress themselves. There were more staff members in this area than in the other area. These patients needed to be cared for with continual diligence. As patients wet themselves, a staff member would show up and lead them away to change.

The air still smelled clean in this room despite the fact that all of the patients had problems with incontinence. Ed said, “You take very good care of the people here.”

“We try. We try very hard, but it’s so difficult,” replied Bill.

Ed went over to one of the staff members and introduced himself. The staff member said, “Hello, I’m Karen.”

Ed asked, “How long have you worked here?”

With a sigh, the woman said, “I don’t work here. My mother is in here, so I come twice a week to help out.”

“Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t realize,” replied Ed with a slight feeling of discomfort.

“She’s progressed to stage seven. I only go back there to check up on her. It breaks my heart to see her that way,” she explained.

Looking around, Ed said, “This is a nice place.”

“Before we found this place our lives were hell. Someone had to be in the house at all times. When she would get upset, the whole house would turn into chaos. My husband and I didn’t have a minute alone to act like husband and wife. Our kids were embarrassed to have company over,” said the woman.

Ed could hear the truth in her voice and knew that Bill had created a very special place here. If people gave more time here than was requested, it meant that the care was first class. He asked, “What about now?”

She replied, “I come here twice a week. The evenings are ours again. The kids can have company. I can cook real meals and we can eat in peace. I can sleep at night knowing that my mother is being given the best care possible. This place is a godsend.”

Smiling, Ed said, “Thank you for your comments.”

Bill and Ed left the shelter and returned to the house. On the way, Ed said, “I think you’ve worked a miracle here.”

Sitting up straighter, Bill replied, “I’m glad you think so. Your opinion counts a lot to me.”

Ed asked, “How is it doing financially?”

Shrugging, Bill replied, “It’s non-profit, but the income does pay for the salaries of the full time staff, medical personal, and maintenance of the place. The volunteer time spent here by family members really does ease the cost.”

“Non-profit?” asked Ed.

“How can you pursue a profit after seeing those people? I couldn’t do it,” replied Bill. He sighed and said, “Profiting out of that misery has to be the ugliest thing a person can do.”

Secretly Ed agreed, but he also knew that people needed to make a decent wage in order to do that kind of work. He asked, “Do you pay yourself well?”

“Well enough. I have a check that pays the bills, gives me some money in the savings account, and a retirement plan. I’m not trying to get rich, but I don’t allow myself to live in poverty.” Bill was proud that he paid himself only as much as the highest paid staff member that worked for him. Others would have given themselves a much greater paycheck at the expense of additional staff.

They reached the house and found Liz sitting naked under the umbrella at the table by pool. Ed took the opportunity to examine her body. She was a redhead complete with lots of freckles, large breasts that still resisted gravity, a shapely figure, and a shaved pubic area. Her pale skin was sensitive to the sun, so she kept to the shade except when in the pool. The overall effect was quite pleasing to the eye.