The Winsome Visitor
Christmas always gives me the blues.
The December that Dennis was in the nursing home, though, was the worst month of my life. The hallway outside his room was decorated with lovely garland and sparkling stars. They seemed to taunt me.
Our friends didn’t know what they could do to help—and there really was nothing they could do. So, they brought cookies and candy and fruit baskets. One colleague with two young sons brought a window decoration of a scene from “A Charlie Brown Christmas.”
The closer it got to the holiday, the more festive the atmosphere of the nursing home became. I certainly didn’t begrudge the activities for patients who were able to participate. There was Christmas music and caroling and hot chocolate served by volunteers wearing Santa caps.
On the afternoon of December 23, as I was sitting several feet from Dennis’ bedside, I heard some laughter and “oohs and aahs” from down the hall. A couple minutes later there was a knock on our open door.
It was a short, chubby, elderly gentleman. He looked elfish. “May we come in?” he asked. With him was an adorable fawn-colored English bulldog wearing a fluffy collar made of red and green tulle with jingle bells hanging from several of the pieces of fabric.
“This is Cherry. She loves to visit here.”
I would later learn that English bulldogs make excellent therapy dogs because they’re docile and obedient, but most of all affectionate. Once properly trained they respond very well to their handlers.
Once I motioned for them to come in, Cherry went right to Dennis’ bed, put her paws up on the mattress and sniffed around a bit. When he remained motionless, she scratched her paws on the bed a little more.
She was probably used to immediate reactions of delight. She turned her head and looked at the elfish man as if to say, “I’m trying here, I’m trying.” “He might be sleeping soundly, Cherry,” he told her.
“No,” I said. “My husband is in a non-responsive state. If he could wake up, Cherry would be petted and hugged and adored.”
“Gosh, I’m so sorry. Must be really hard this time of year.”
“The worst,” I said as my voice cracked and I choked up.
Cherry immediately left Dennis’ bed and came to me, jingling all the way. She nuzzled against my legs and let me cuddle her. She was the consummate professional and correctly intuited there were two broken people in that room.