My Instead: Instead of cleaning, I sat with my 93-year-old client
Norman for an hour just talking.
Today was my day to clean Norman’s little house on Gilbert Street.
He wasn’t there when I arrived so I let myself in with the key he had given me.
Without hesitation, I began my duties. He got home when I was about half completed,
so he went to his perch in the living room to rest.
When I moved into the living room to clean it, he asked if we
could schedule the next time I would be coming. He grabbed his pocket calendar as
I sat down to look at my phone’s calendar. We planned for Monday, December 1st
to be my next visit. Then I just kept sitting with Norman. He has
a lot of alone time since he wife passed away about ten years ago so he
appreciates companionship whenever he can get it. I had nowhere else to be
after his house so what better time to spend time with this gentleman!
I think Norman sensed that I was going to sit a spell with him, so
he took the opportunity and ran with it. He began telling all kinds of stories
about his days in the service. He was an innocent man who got married at the
young age of 20, still a virgin! As a young husband overseas and away from home,
he missed his wife and, above all, was faithful to her. He talked about other
men he knew that were out for one thing. And there was plenty of that “one
thing” to be had…but not for Norman. He also said he would marry the same woman
over again.
He joked about what his buddies would say “A woman's ass and a
whiskey glass make many a man a horse's ass.” Have truer words ever been
spoken? The guys would ask Norman why he wasn’t going for the ladies. He kept
reminding them that he was a married man. He asked me if I thought that he
missed something. Yes, I’m sure he missed something and it wasn’t good. Now he
can live out his days without regret.
We talked about Thanksgiving and what he was going to do. He said
probably nothing. His son that lives in the area is way over in St. Louis and
he doesn’t like to drive that far at night. I thought he might be upset, but he
said that he didn’t care. He explained that as you get older not much “winds your
clock” or “shakes your grate”. Those phrases both mean “upset you”. That old
dog was still teaching me a thing or two.
With his empty stomach beckoning him, he said he had to leave and
get something to eat. I stayed, still having some cleaning to finish up. As he stepped
out of the living room, he turned back around and said “Come here and let me
give you a hug, Mary”. We embraced as he called me his best friend.
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