Her black hair and dark brown eyes gave the impression that she was younger than 39 years. Her Hispanic heritage allowed her to obtain the spunk to live in a place where she clearly did not belong. Because of multiple sclerosis, she was the youngest resident of a nursing home full of people twice her age. A drug-addicted husband and aging parents left her with the only choice of giving up her two children to bitter in-laws who thought their “precious” son could do no wrong.
Our employer hired Tacy, my boss, the same month as Terri’s arrival. Tacy had two children and was also 39 years of age. Instant bonding! Tacy called her Terricita; the added suffix meaning dear one. Because of this bonding, the therapy department became a trusted safe space for Terri.
Getting Terri out of bed in the morning often came with a barrage of demands as well as a few choice words when the nursing staff did not follow Terricita’s personal protocol. Many of the nursing assistants feared her.
I was in my late 40’s and living by myself when my employment started there. Personally, I always felt Terri “tolerated” me. Many mornings the sound of her electric wheelchair down the hallway let me know that she was about to barge into the office and request repositioning in her chair when the nursing staff did not perform their morning routine properly. Tacy’s desk was the direction the chair wheeled to first. If my boss was absent, then I was allowed to perform my occupational therapy protocol!
As the COVID pandemic hit the region sometime in 2020, many people working in all areas of the nursing home refused to enter infected rooms, were banned from working, or quit. COVID was viewed as a DEATH sentence! I was the only therapy person, out of six therapists, who volunteered to enter patients’ rooms. I would have hesitated, too, if I had to consider others at home.
I soon learned that I would enter each private room dressed in garb like a beekeeper while physical therapists, speech therapists, and occupational therapists were to sit with a computer in their cars in the parking lot. I took an electronic tablet into the patients’ rooms and followed the instructions of the person on the other end of the video call.
When Terri heard of my willingness to do what no man or woman had done yet, she wheeled her chair into our office and pleaded with me to reconsider my plight. She even began to cry and let me know she cared for me and she did not want to see me suffer. It was one of those moments in life that touched my heart so deeply it will remain with me forever! That moment catapulted me into a mindset of wanting to help people even more. This young lady who had experienced so much pain and sadness in her own life was worried and crying for me? WOW!
Terri is gone now. MS prevailed but she will never be forgotten! Some of the nursing staff may not have realized how much she really loved. She would spend what little money she had sending care packages to her son in the military. Her daughter would receive lovely birthday gifts. Elderly residents in the hallways would be met with kind words of encouragement to make them smile or think of better times. She also let me know how valuable my life was to others when I did not realize it!
You will forever be near my heart, Terricita!
~ Heidi Baurle, writer
~ Danyelle Yoder, painter of “Storm Survivor,” danyelleyoder.com
