Hy Hospice Blog – Henry said if a fire broke out, he’d be “toast in a wheelchair.”
Here’s a detail I want to share from a previous visit .
If you remember, Henry is a hospice patient I’ve been visiting for some time. He lives alone in an assisted-living facility.
I brought a blueberry muffin and hot tea for Henry when I visited this week. As I entered the apartment he was dressed in what he called “street clothes” and sitting in his La-Z-Boy recliner. His feet were elevated and he had an oxygen line under his nose. He looked surprisingly comfortable.
As he examined the bag of treats I’d delivered, I noticed the clear plastic oxygen tube lying on the floor. There was a long tangle running twelve feet across the room to the oxygen generator in his bedroom. It looked like a hazard and when I asked about the mess he responded, “You should watch your step.” He added, “…hardly anyone has tripped over it.” As I turned to see his face, he was grinning.
We sat and talked about a wide range of subjects. He joined me on the couch and we went through every photo from his 90th birthday. The photos resembled any other birthday party with twenty or more people of all ages eating and drinking. One frail man sitting in a wheelchair was at the center of every shot. They made him wear a pointy hat and pretend to blow out the candles.
The candles weren’t lit because you can’t have an open flame near oxygen. A serious fire, that’s impossible to extinguish, could erupt from the flowing oxygen. Of course, the person at the end of the tube gets the worst of the fire. Henry said if a fire broke out, he’d be “toast in a wheelchair.”
Since Henry doesn’t walk very far, his family had taken him to a local restaurant with a facility for small gatherings. The room was modest with dark wood paneling, cafeteria tables and folding chairs. It hadn’t been renovated in years and I could imagine the local Elk’s Club meeting there the first Thursday of each month.
I learned that Henry has four children with only one living nearby. The other three flew in for the event and made him very proud. As we went through the birthday photos, he pointed out each person and gave me his or her name. The birthday party was one of the rare opportunities for him to leave his apartment and I could tell he enjoyed it (even as it looked awkward to me). Simple pleasures.
