Roommates

Dad had a new roommate when I showed up yesterday after work. It had been almost a week since the last one left, a young father who had been in a car accident where the car caught on fire and burned his legs, poor kid. This last week was the first time since his first few days in acute rehab that he had a room all to himself. I remember, in the beginning, they asked us if Dad wanted to be alone in a room or did he mind if he had a roommate. Dad being Dad didn’t care one way or the other…until he actually had roommates. Now I’m not quite sure if he wants them or not. It is what it is though. If I were to think about how many he’s had since everything happened, I would say, it’s about a dozen different roommates in the 10 weeks since the stroke. Some we have talked with and gotten to know, some have been off in their own little world, some have been very quiet. They have all been in the various facilities for different reasons. It’s interesting, as I think back, I don’t believe any of them have been there for stroke recovery specifically.

Dad’s roommate this time is a young 84 year old gentleman who was born in Brewer Maine (the sister city to Bangor), still lives independently in the same house he’s been in for the last 49 years and with the exception of a couple of years he was in the service has never lived away. His wife passed away four years ago this month, his one daughter moved to Alabama for 12 years before returning to Maine (they may leave, but always come back up here). Dad and I met his two daughters yesterday (we aren’t sure yet if there are other children) and we were told their father would have Dad in stitches soon as he apparently has quite the sense of humor. I tell you all this because this is the stuff Dad would tell to us. He loves to talk to people and then tell us everything about who he talked to, where they are from, what they did for a living, any and all information he learned about them. And when he references people it’s always by their first and last name, what state they are from, what town they live in, what they did/do for a living, where he knows them from. And he brings up these facts every time he talks about them. So it’s Liz Becker across the street, Lee and Barbara Smith from church, Artie and Dave Hacker who clean up parts of the Appalachian Trail, Gene Morton who used to be a sheriff, etc. I get the biggest kick of it to be honest.  

So we will see how Dad fairs with his newest roommate. I’m sure there will be a couple of more before it’s Dad’s turn to walk out of Stillwater.