Pay It Forward

I didn't have to be into work until 10:00 am. I work Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 8:00 am until 1:00 pm and Tuesday, Thursday from 10:00 am until 3:00 pm. So I decided to treat myself to a bagel from the local supermarket. They have a separate bagel donut counter as you walk into the store which is really convenient if you just running in for you morning fix of a donut or bagel and a cup of coffee. So I threw a bagel into a bag. I didn't need to get any butter or cream cheese because the little cafe at my place of work has butter and cream cheese. They also have bagels but they are the frozen kind and I just love me a fresh crispy on the outside soft on the inside bagel. When I got to the counter with my bagel in hand to pay the cashier there was a man there getting a couple of bagels smeared which butter, cream cheese, etc. So he was kind enough to have the cashier ring me out first since his order was going to take a little longer and then when my total rang up to $1.07 and I said I didn't have the 7 cents, the gentlemen offered the cashier the 7 cents. Now I have to find a way to pay it forward today.

Two years ago this Memorial Day weekend my father fell and broke his hip. He had been struggling with a very weak heart and had many bouts of congestive heart failure and many visits to the hopsital. We had moved him into a small apartment after my mother died and we sold their home. He was happy there and doing very well from 2001 when she died until 2008 when his heart started to get really weak. He had had a pacemaker put in 2007 but I think this made him a little nervous. So two years ago on Memorial Day weekend he was in the rehab unit of the nursing home where I work. He had just gotten released from the hospital due to another run with congestive heart failure and the medical staff said it would do hinm good to have a little bit of rehab before they sent him home to get him strong again. So he went from the hospital to the rehab unit where he was scheduled to stay for about two weeks. That's where he fell. He was getting up during the night to go to the bathroom. They had him moving about pretty good with a walker and I am pretty sure he was told to ring the bell if he needed to get up, but knowing my father he decided he would do it himself. So he had to have hip replacement and after he recovered from surgery he ended up back in the rehab unit and then was transferred to the nursing care unit for the remnainder of his life. I was very lucky to work here in the place where he lived. I had a job at the university here in the city where we live, working 30 hours a week. When my father was moved to this nursing home was right around the time I was getting ready to start working less hours. My daughter had graduated from college and I wanted to start winding down toward retirement. My daughter had gone to the same university where I worked. One of the benefits of being employed was free tuition for dependents, that benefit would have cost us well over $100,000.00. So as I visited my father every day I was more and more interested in working at that nursing home. Just on a whim one day I asked about a job, just a few hours a week. They said that infact there was something coming up when they open up their rehab unit to more patients. They needed someone to archive the rehab patient records. These are patients that would usually not stay here for more than 2 weeks. It was perfect. I started here in October '08 and it was pefect because I got to see my father everyday. I used my breaks and lunch time to visit with him and take him for walks on the property in the wheelchair that he wss not confined to. He told all the staff that I was working there, he was so proud, I think he thought I ran the place. He seemed to be very tired and both my brother and I agreed that he probaby just didn't want to go on anymore without my mother. He put up a good fight and tried really hard to do it without her. Two years after he arrived here he died.