Saturday, May 5, 2012
The dust from the Bingo blowup a couple weeks ago still has not quite settled: One of the VFW Auxiliary volunteers still hasn’t come back after landing smack in the middle of an ugly prize-cart controversy.
I’m not judging her one bit—it can get very uncomfortable when the people you’re trying to help turn on you—but I am filling in for her at their Saturday Bingo sessions.
Doreen and Terry had loaded the prize carts by the time I got there, and Matt was calling numbers. It was a full, happy house, and I wanted to try to connect with as many people as I could.
Ray McDade was looking down at his Bingo card when I walked up to say hi. He said hi back, but he didn’t look up. I rubbed his shoulder and said, “Hey,” and we finally made eye contact.
“Sandy!,” he smiled. “Well, bless your heart. I didn’t know it was you.” He took my hand and kissed it, which I love, love, love. He looked worlds better than the last time I’d seen him—and he felt better, too.
“I haven’t had a single pain all day,” he beamed.
Everyone seemed better today, actually. When Ray won an early game and yelled, “Bin-goooooo,” Charlie and Leo Martell started howling like coyotes. Matt laughed, and the rest of the afternoon all the boys were especially energized with multi-syllable Bingos.
At one point, David Fox thought he had a Bingo, but when Doreen checked his card, she found one number missing. David, though, didn’t hear that, and called me over with the prize cart.
“Everyone said I won, but I didn’t get a prize,” David said.
I tried to explain that he hadn’t won, but he wasn’t quite getting it. “I can’t hear, you know,” he said.
I smiled. “I know,” I said. So I made a pouty face and pointed to the bad number and shook my head.
“You mean I didn’t win?” David asked.
“You didn’t win,” I said right into his better ear.
David looked me right in the eyes. He was disappointed, but he also was happy.
“Thank you for taking the time to explain that to me,” he said. “I can’t hear, you know.”
“I know,” I said, and rubbed his shoulder.
James has been sitting at Ray’s table since Ann Lawson’s death, and I’d never really talked with him much before. But today he waved me over and took my hand. I thought it might be a two-kiss day, but James just smiled. “I wanted to see that ring of yours,” he laughed. “It’s blinding me.” We both laughed. “It is totally fake,” I told him.
If all the boys were beaming, though, Dorothy outshined them by a million megawatts. Her 70th birthday was Wednesday, and her daughter flew up from Florida to surprise her. Her daughter had staged an elaborate plan involving her dad, a rental car, a big bunch of balloons and a hiding place, and it had worked perfectly: Dorothy said she was laughing and crying at the same time. Even better, her daughter wanted to take her to the casino. Dorothy loves the casino, but it was her daughter who won—enough, Dorothy said, to pay for her plane ticket from Florida and her rental car for a week with her birthday mom.
I just love it when Karma works.
The dust from the Bingo blowup a couple weeks ago still has not quite settled: One of the VFW Auxiliary volunteers still hasn’t come back after landing smack in the middle of an ugly prize-cart controversy.
I’m not judging her one bit—it can get very uncomfortable when the people you’re trying to help turn on you—but I am filling in for her at their Saturday Bingo sessions.
Doreen and Terry had loaded the prize carts by the time I got there, and Matt was calling numbers. It was a full, happy house, and I wanted to try to connect with as many people as I could.
Ray McDade was looking down at his Bingo card when I walked up to say hi. He said hi back, but he didn’t look up. I rubbed his shoulder and said, “Hey,” and we finally made eye contact.
“Sandy!,” he smiled. “Well, bless your heart. I didn’t know it was you.” He took my hand and kissed it, which I love, love, love. He looked worlds better than the last time I’d seen him—and he felt better, too.
“I haven’t had a single pain all day,” he beamed.
Everyone seemed better today, actually. When Ray won an early game and yelled, “Bin-goooooo,” Charlie and Leo Martell started howling like coyotes. Matt laughed, and the rest of the afternoon all the boys were especially energized with multi-syllable Bingos.
At one point, David Fox thought he had a Bingo, but when Doreen checked his card, she found one number missing. David, though, didn’t hear that, and called me over with the prize cart.
“Everyone said I won, but I didn’t get a prize,” David said.
I tried to explain that he hadn’t won, but he wasn’t quite getting it. “I can’t hear, you know,” he said.
I smiled. “I know,” I said. So I made a pouty face and pointed to the bad number and shook my head.
“You mean I didn’t win?” David asked.
“You didn’t win,” I said right into his better ear.
David looked me right in the eyes. He was disappointed, but he also was happy.
“Thank you for taking the time to explain that to me,” he said. “I can’t hear, you know.”
“I know,” I said, and rubbed his shoulder.
James has been sitting at Ray’s table since Ann Lawson’s death, and I’d never really talked with him much before. But today he waved me over and took my hand. I thought it might be a two-kiss day, but James just smiled. “I wanted to see that ring of yours,” he laughed. “It’s blinding me.” We both laughed. “It is totally fake,” I told him.
If all the boys were beaming, though, Dorothy outshined them by a million megawatts. Her 70th birthday was Wednesday, and her daughter flew up from Florida to surprise her. Her daughter had staged an elaborate plan involving her dad, a rental car, a big bunch of balloons and a hiding place, and it had worked perfectly: Dorothy said she was laughing and crying at the same time. Even better, her daughter wanted to take her to the casino. Dorothy loves the casino, but it was her daughter who won—enough, Dorothy said, to pay for her plane ticket from Florida and her rental car for a week with her birthday mom.
I just love it when Karma works.