Chipper in the Old Folks Home

Clouds hovered above in an ever-present gloom, while the slow stream of time ticked onward. Bennington Residential Care, the Nursing Home with the highest turnover rate of medical staff in the county, sat between two great mountains in a quiet valley.

If you were to look up the definition of dreary, the cracked gray bricks that were more at home in prison, and the faded glass doors opening into the facility would be the first reference image. Working here felt more akin to being a vulture waiting for sickly animals to finally stop stirring. Each day medication was given at systematic times. Between these encounters and bathing, this was the most communication the shriveled, elderly patients got.

The parking lot with its faded lines and an army of potholes had the same cars every day, belonging to the staff themselves. No one came to visit. No life was welcomed into the building. Instead, this was a premeditated graveyard for Sunset years.

Watching the elderly shamble around with no real direction was almost as life draining. Their sunken eyes watched the outside world, most in a medical daze or barely able to recall why they felt a pulling feeling when the breeze perfectly rustled the trees into dance. Even when they are wheeled outside to sit next to the resident pond, empty sockets looked blankly at the artificial installment, which was more of a large puddle than a natural landmark.

At the end of each day, there was a meager dinner that was mostly liquid or blended foods, and a constant battle to get the residents to eat their meals. No exceptions to diet or taste, and systematically served in the same portion each evening.

Then, it was off to bed. Medications were delivered again, and the constant questions of asking where their families are bounced off the sterile walls until it faded into the night shift.

Within these forlorn halls and uniform beds was Marilyn, mother of three. Cracked, aged hands struggled to hoist her water glass as she forced down her supersized pills for the evening, that would help her sleep and ease the pain that lived within her bones. As the water began to topple and shake, much younger and strong hands came forward to give assistance. “Here, sweetie. I can help with that”

As the many years sunk into the older woman’s very core, bitterness was also something that was breathed as freely as air. “Don’t touch me!” Turning her body away, Marilyn tried to seek reprieve from the constant aid and offers of assistance. She has never needed help in her life and never gotten any no matter how difficult it was. So why start now?

As the helping hands slowly withdrew, the shaking glass was finally placed back on the bedside table, and the curtains are drawn for the night. Sleep was a dreamless stasis with the pills, but it was the only way she could sleep. If not, the walls would become unfamiliar and she swears the voice of her husband is calling for her from the hallway beyond the door.

Slate-shaded skies welcomed the morning as the world of Bennington began to awaken. It was while the nurses began to clock in and settle themselves for their long watch, that the front doors opened.

A blinding sun shattered the weakening pulse of the building, sending everything into a confused uproar. Unfamiliar smells and noises came down the entrance hallway at an unrelenting pace, as staff scrambled to assess the danger. One nurse was toppled over, and another lost control of her medication charts, paper flying and cascading to the grainy tiles below.

“Oh, don’t mind him! Chipper! Here boy, come here!” Panting and fuzzy, this incarnation of light spun backward to a brightly-colored woman with an even more dazzling smile.

Although this intruding woman named Molly affirmed that Chipper was in fact a Golden Retriever and not some omen of the apocalypse, the general populace of the facility was shaken.

Kissing hands and shaking paws when asked, Chipper immediately set to work disorienting the ecosystem carefully set by the slow draining of human life.

Never staying in a single spot for long, this unyielding comet made his way into nearly every crevice and corner of Bennington Residental Care. Each time he entered a new room, a little spark of light was left behind in his wake.

Yet the door second on the end from the hallway remained closed, with nurses quietly refocusing the rare spark of life into other areas in an attempt to protect him from what rests there.

An elderly mother of three with no children coming to visit, and refuses to participate in activities with other residents. Only one or two of the staff is even allowed in the room, which always has a single occupant staring at the eggshell walls.

A scuffle in the dining hall and a bowl of soup spilled sent the normally resolute guardians into action.

A bounding ball of joy was still darting from room to room when the dining hall erupted, and Mollie left Chipper to sit with a friendly old man who sleeps most of the day in his pleasantly-lit room.

Marilyn was not fond of doors being left open.

Calling for help and repeatedly mashing the call button on her bed, she demanded someone to close her door and let her solitude resume. She refused to get out of bed for such a silly reason, rather allowing her voice to resonate down the hallways in her stead.

As her cries continued to go unanswered, a light clicking noise began to sound down the hallway. Stopping and craning her neck off the bed, the elder attempted to peer down the hallway.

Bounding light cascaded into the room and a shout of alarm was sounded as a weight landed on her lap. Coming to her aid was the Sun itself, tail wagging and attentive ears turned forward.

“What is this?!” Cries of a disgruntled ancient were stopped short as deep honey-colored eyes leveled to her own, panting happily and fluffy fur brushing along her arms. 

Those eyes.

A quick blink, and then another. She knew this. She had to remember. It felt so important to her to remember.

Spring green wallpaper with pink flowers, restored wooden planks, and a farmhouse in the valley. She knew this place. In front of her sitting on the kitchen floor was a black fuzzy thing, tail wagging, and eyes looking up at her with happy curiosity. Sunlight caught in the dark fur, and paws that were still damp with mud.

Duke.

Quickly now, memories of these same eyes flashed over and over again at a dizzying pace.

Who was this again?

Duke. A faded red collar and a bronze name tag. Car rides in the summer and running in the snow in winter. Soft, musky fur that always got over her sheets and floor.

The friendly eyes before her continued to wait patiently.

A shaking, withered hand reached out to rest on the golden head of this friendly ambassador.

“Duke, where have you been?”

A woman who had held off all well-wishers and even priests trying to bring her peace of mind with their religion, felled low by Chipper, therapy dog in training.

When the dining hall events ceased, the call button was finally noticed by tired attendants who made their way to the second door from the end of the hallway.

Finding rare beams of sunlight landing on the bed and the golden beating heart of life resting on her lap, Marilyn was softly whispering memories from a distant place.

“I’m so sorry, don’t mind him! He’s still in training”

A gentle, and impossible smile cracked the stone features of the elder’s face.

“No, no. He’s a good boy, aren’t you Duke?”

And so, the loyal soul stayed on her bed as the day drifted into night.

When the sun finally began to sink behind the faraway mountains, so too did the light have to retreat.

“Okay, we will be back tomorrow! ‘Duke’ here just has to get some dinner and rest and he will be right back bright and early”

Slowly allowing the light to leave the room, Marilyn settled into a soothing sleep for the first time in years. Her family hadn’t forgotten her after all. And finally, the next return of the sun was something to look forward to.