Furlong Meadows Retirement Home sat by itself in the woods of Johanna, Maryland; a town on Maryland’s built in the hills of western Maryland, off interstate 70; a large town with small town values. Thanksgiving had just past, and Christmas was just around the corner, yet the temperature was a cool sixty-four degree’s; very unusual for Maryland. The sky was bright blue without a cloud in sight. A light breeze blew threw the saplings planted in the parking lot of the retirement home.
Each room in Furlong Meadows had a magnificent view of the dense woods surrounding it, the staff was caring and professional, and had, at their disposal, the finest equipment available. Residents of Furlong were accustom the best amenities money could buy; exercise rooms, an indoor heated pool, Jacuzzi’s, and room service twenty four hours a day. Families of the patrons paid a high price for a room in Furlong Meadows. Yet, every night all the residents – except for those who were asleep by seven-thirty (after wheel of fortune) – ended up in the recreation room to watch the small television that sat on top of a coffee table. Their faces sad… their heart’s broken. Sure, Christmas was around the corner, but they were still stuck in a nursing home. If you asked any one of them how they felt they would tell you that they worked hard their whole lives… for nothing; in the end they were unwanted, and no matter how much the room cost it wasn’t ‘their’ room, and they were going to die alone.
Samantha Holland, head nurse of Furlong Meadows, sat comfortably behind the nurses counter in the empty 3rd floor recreation room, with the phone to her ear. “You will have to come in and… Yes, I understand. It’ll be done right away.” Samantha (Nurse Holland to her employees) hung up the phone. She thought for a moment, looking at the phone as if it disgusted her.
Looking out over the empty rec. room – the tables, chairs, the sofa, coffee table… television; the small television – if not for Perry Como’s version of “White Christmas” playing on her small clock radio, the silence would have driven her mad, and just then Samantha wanted to cry. Tears came easily to nurse Holland, yet this time she was successful in holding them in.
Becoming attached to the residents of Furlong Meadows was a task Nurse Holland participated in too much; she knew it was an unhealthy practice to participate in, but she couldn’t help it. She became a nurse to help people; it’s what she enjoyed doing, and she would never give up on anyone in need. It made her angry when she came across another who could give up on someone so easily – especially a family member – and to be so insensitive about it at that. She pulled out a drawer from the file cabinet placed under the counter top, opened a file folder without removing it from the cabinet, took a card from it, and swiveled around in her chair. “Jimmy”, She called.
Jimmy, a tall lanky 17 year old kid, who’s plan was to go to medical school, and who volunteered at Furlong Meadows for a college credit, appeared at her side in an instant. “Yes nurse Holland?”
Samantha held the card up. “Room 318”, she commanded without looking at him; her eyes were fixed on the tiny T.V., she stared at it like the residents stared at it at night, it was the focus of her frustration. Though it was never her decision, she always felt as if she was giving a death sentence by ordering that card to be used.
Jimmy knew the card well, too. He never liked the task of taping it to the door of any of the residents, no matter how mean they may have been to him. But orders were orders, and it was part of the job. Besides, it wasn’t him who was making the decision; the family did that. It didn’t make it any easier on him however. Jimmy, hesitantly, took the card from nurse Holland, grabbed a role of tape from the desktop, and was off, down the hall to room 318, his footfalls echoed back to Nurse Holland, and this time her strength failed… she cried.
The card in Jimmy’s hand had three letters on it – “DNR” – and nothing else. Jimmy stood in front of the door marked with the numbers 3-1-8 for a few seconds, staring. Finally, he raised his hands, and taped the card on the door of room 318 in Furlong Meadows nursing home.
The nursing home selected by the family of Ruth McCray, a feisty old gal who never met a piece of juicy gossip she didn’t like, to be her final home. She, and her late second husband owned Ruth’s, a general store in town, on Main Street. Ruth came from a poor family, where receiving a good education was about as likely as an H.G. Wells novel actually happening; yet she struggled, and graduated from college. She marched for woman’s voting rights; she lost her first husband in World War II, and her first son in Vietnam. She witnessed the murder of John F. Kennedy, and was a community leader in countless ways. Ruth touched many lives during her time out and about.
And now, as Ruth McCray lay in bed taking her afternoon nap, with the cool December sunlight slanting in over her sleeping 92-year-old body, a kid, not yet out of high school, and who hasn’t touched anyone’s life yet, was taping her fate to the door of her room – a gift from her family, happy Thanksgiving and… Merry Christmas.
Jimmy walked back to the nurse’s station, ashamed of himself. His footfalls were deafening in the silence of the hall. ‘Maybe an office job would suit me better’ he thought to himself.
To Be Continued…
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