Boo

You know, I generally don't approve of calling older people "cute." It seems patronizing and disrespectful. But oh, gosh, sometimes the shoe really, really fits.

I'm entering "event reports" at my temp job, and there's one I kind of have to share with you. It's a report of a patient fall. The elderly man's wife usually makes sure that he's in bed before she goes to bed herself, but on this night, he wants to stay up late to watch a TV program about ghosts. After a bit, she's concerned, so she heads out of the bedroom to check on him, just as he's coming in. He's so startled he loses his balance and falls over backwards. (He is not hurt, which means we get to find this funny and endearing if we want to.)

Then, of course, there's the one where the husband of the woman suffering debilitating depression intentionally gives her a 4-fold dose of her sedative-hypnotic, then tells the nurse on the phone that no visit is necessary because his wife is too tired. Um. Less funny, less endearing. (She, too, was okay, incidentally.)