SoldiersHomeStories.com
  • Home
  • The Residents' Stories
  • Blog: My Visits with the Veterans
  • Photo Gallery
  • About This Project
  • Soldiers Home History
  • In Memoriam

Bingo Basics

8/13/2011

0 Comments

 
Saturday, August 6, 2011

Today’s Bingo belonged to the VFW Ladies’ Auxiliary, but since I know and love these particular VFW ladies (Doreen and Sandy), I barged right in and made myself at home.

As I was saying hello to Dorothy and Gary S., I noticed Faith one table over. I hadn’t seen Faith since her husband died, so I excused myself and made a beeline to hug her. She introduced me to her son and granddaughters and showed me a lovely memorial photo of Ben, and then another of the two of them. “This is the last picture of him,” she said. “It’s beautiful,” I told her. “I’m so glad you have it.”

Some familiar faces were absent—no Ray McDade (I later found him dozing in his new nursing-center space), no Ann Lawson, no Bill Crowell—but Ari was back calling the Bingo numbers, and Cal Bush looked eager to tell me something.

As I got closer, I remembered what that might be. “How’d you do at the casino last week?,” I lobbed. Bingo! (So to speak.) Cal beamed. “I won $60,” he said. I punched him in the arm. He wins every single time he goes. I do not. “And I was only playing pennies,” he said.

At one point a man I hadn’t met wheeled in. I introduced myself, and he told me he’d just moved into the nursing center from Roosevelt Barracks and was learning his way around. I brought him a nursing-center activity calendar, and he pulled out a big magnifying glass to take a look.

After Bingo, I told Ari how nice it was to have him back. Cal thanked me for coming. He always does. “It’s my pleasure,” I told Cal. And it is. It always is. 

(P.S.: I have not forgotten or abandoned the topic of The Transition. But after reading Bob’s perspective on my last post, I would like to seek out those residents’ views to balance the concerns I have encountered so far. Also: I still hope to receive the you-will-not-be-evicted letter the director had planned to send residents, as well as his Power Point presentation on the plan.)
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Author
    My name is Sandy Deneau Dunham. I'm a journalist who’s worked at The Phoenix Gazette, The (Tacoma) News Tribune,  The Seattle Times, Town Hall Seattle and Pacific Lutheran University. I'm now back at The Seattle Times, as associate editor of its gorgeously glossy Pacific NW magazine. I've been a volunteer at the Washington Soldiers Home and Colony in Orting, Washington, since January 2009, and I am still a remedial videographer.   

     

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed