Rainy Tuesday

Well, I’m feeling some better today. The throat doesn’t seem to be any worse and maybe slightly better, so we’ll see. I plan on hitting the bed early tonight and getting as much rest as possible.

I did leave work a little early yesterday so I could catch up on some things around the house and get some chores done since this week is going to be so busy. While I was taking laundry to the laundry room, I noticed a taxi cab parked at the end of our street and the taxi driver yelling at someone. I was just about to call the police when our neighbor came out (this was happening in front of his house) and then I saw that the person in the cab was my next-door neighbor, an elderly man named Mr. Williams. He was dressed in a hospital gown and looked horrible. Our neighbor got him out and up to his house and before too long, Mr. Williams’ son arrived. About two weeks ago I had seen his son bring him home one afternoon and he was dressed in a hospital gown then and seemed very out of it.

A little while later John came up to the door (neighbor) and explained what had been going on. Mr. Williams has been suffering from dementia and has been leaving his house during the night and wandering around the neighborhood. Apparently he wakes up and doesn’t realize where he is, even though he’s lived in that house for 50 years. John found him on his front porch a couple of nights ago and then again Monday night, except this time Mr. Williams was barely dressed in the freezing cold and covered in blood. He had fallen somewhere. John had to carry him up out of the woods and before long the police, fire department, ambulances and a news truck were on the scene. How we (at least I) slept through all of this I don’t know. They took him to the hospital and his son didn’t even know until he was called yesterday afternoon after the hospital discharged Mr. Williams, threw him in a cab and sent him home. This situation just breaks my heart.

For some reason his son keeps bringing him home to live by himself. Now DFS has gotten involved and will be making home visits, so this might be the wake up call his son needs to finally get a full-time nurse to live with his father or make the decision to move his father to a nursing home. It’s all so sad, but Mr. Williams obviously can’t stay by himself anymore. Who knows what could happen? A car could hit him or he could fall into one of the wooded areas. And it’s getting colder at night now.

That was our drama for the evening yesterday. A very sad situation that I hope has a happy ending.