Visit to Norristown

Posted by TeamCharlie on March 16, 2009 under Wags for Hope | Read the First Comment

Every time we go to Norristown to visit my 98-year-old Aunt Mary I get the urge to write about it.  During the course of my travels with Wags for Hope, I have met a lot of people that live in nursing homes and have watched many of them deteriorate over time.  Some who have been Charlie’s biggest fans in the past shun our visits now due to their constant state of discomfort.  I called Aunt Mary Saturday night to announce our planned trip to see her.  She is hard of hearing so it took me a few times for her to recognize my voice and to understand what was going on.  She didn’t seem to know who was calling her.  She finally recognized my name and with her very slow speech asked me when we would be there.   ”It’s happening.” I thought to myself.  She is going fast. I prepared myself for the worst and thought sadly that this might be our last trip.

My wife had the forethought to bring MaryMargaret’s violin. Such a great idea.  We packed up all our stuff and loaded Charlie in the back and off to Norristown we went.  When we arrived, as we got off the elevator there she was waiting for us.  She looked great.  When we spoke to her I was so relieved because she really hadn’t lost much since the last time we saw her.  Her speech is slow and she is hard of hearing, but she understood everything we talked about.  We even got her laughing a few times. She is such a pleasant person to visit.  And I was so happy we had the violin. MaryMargaret played a private “concert” for her and then she played again for all the folks in the day room.  Aunt Mary was a star.  “This is your family?” they asked her.   When she nodded yes the woman said “Congratulations!”  They were all taken with MaryMargaret and Charlie.  Even though Aunt Mary had never seemed to pay that much attention to Charlie when we brought him in the past, you could tell she got a kick out of him licking my face and bringing joy to others. She asked us to send a picture of him for her bulletin board.  You bet we will.

We took a video of MaryMargaret playing at the nursing home.  You can clearly hear Charlie panting during the first piece as he was right next to me.  I think he approved as well.