Typical Day
Graham Mawasher wakes up at 3:00AM this morning to get to his 4:00AM shift. It's a Saturday, but he won't be out having brunch with everyone else. He has a job to do. He doesn't bother with a shower—his job is a messy one—so he just grabs a piece of toast, puts coffee in a to-go mug and hits the road.
It's dead on the streets at 4:00AM, but in an hour or so the nursing home will be bustling. Graham can't understand how everyone is up and moving by that point; it's a part of the job that continually befuddles him ("befuddle" is a vocab word he picked up from the old folks). He walks into the nursing home and sees Kelly, the nurse who usually supervises him.
"Good Morning, Kelly!" Graham says with a smile. He takes a seat beside her in the office.
"More like good evening—the sun isn't even up yet!" Kelly shoots back, taking a bite of her blueberry muffin and looking over her charts.
A couple more orderlies come in for their shift and take seats by Graham. They have until about 6:00AM before they have to start making the rounds. It's quiet in those first two hours, which is good, because Graham is still just waking up.
At 6:00AM, things heat up quickly. He goes through the halls and helps to dress and bathe the residents who are incapacitated. He works on a floor where most of the elderly are completely mentally functional, so it's not the calamity it could be. He only has two patients he needs to assist this morning; he goes first to Mrs. Henderson, who can no longer walk and has very limited mobility.
"Hello there, Graham, so good to see you. I missed you yesterday!" Mrs. Henderson says from her bed.
"I missed you, too, Mrs. Henderson. How are you doing this morning? Should we get you cleaned up and dressed so you can get to breakfast? Rumor has it they're serving waffles today."
Graham gives Mrs. Henderson a thorough bath and helps her put on her favorite blue dress. He lifts her up from her bed and into her wheelchair and they head to the dining hall.
"Alright, Mrs. Henderson, I'm going to go get Mr. Baker ready for breakfast. I'll be back in a moment if you need some help with your food."
"Thank you, dearie," she replies, in that typical old woman way. Graham loves it.
He heads to Mr. Baker's room and gets him dressed. Luckily, he was washed yesterday—Mr. Baker hates to be bathed by other people and makes a huge fuss—so Graham just gets him into his velour sweat suit and puts him in his wheelchair. They head to the dining hall.
Back in the dining hall, most of the residents are able to feed themselves, but Graham moves around to make sure everyone is eating. Kelly walks around as well, administering everyone's medications. By the time all the patients have come to the dining hall, eaten, and left, it's 8:30AM. Graham's shift is almost half over, and getting everyone through breakfast is usually the hardest part of his day.
The residents head out to enjoy the rest of the day. Some walk outside around the gardens, others go to the music room, some watch TV, but hardly any stay in their rooms. Graham walks from room to room, cleans any waste from bed pans, and changes all of the dirty linens.
When he's finished, he usually enjoys talking to the residents to learn a little about them and try to entertain them. But there's no time today. By the time he's finished cleaning rooms it's 11:30AM—time to start gathering everyone for lunch.
Getting the residents together for lunch is a less hectic routine than the breakfast hour. It mostly involves wheeling people into the dining hall and serving them food, which happens to be meatloaf today. Graham walks around spoon feeding some of the residents, and by the time he's done with that it's time to go. Another eight-hour shift gone and it's only 12:00PM.
Maybe he'll go to brunch after all. Better late than never.