The argument

Jaime and I took about a dozen of the residents to a waterfront restaurant.

Jaime was sitting at a table with Vera Mae and several others, including her boyfriend Barney. She and Barney got together when her previous boyfriend moved into a nursing home, where he had recentily died. Now, Vera Mae and Barney are an item.

Somehow during the lunch, the subject of where Barney had lived in New Mexico had come up for discussion. Barney said that he had lived in 'Old Town'. Vera Mae asked, naturally, where 'Old Town' was. Barney said 'New Mexico' Vera Mae asked 'Where in New Mexico?' Barney came back with 'Old Town'. Then, they got into it. Like a bad version of 'Who's on first?', they went back and forth with Vera Mae saying 'Old Town isn't a state.' And Barney saying 'No, New Mexico' and Vera Mae asking 'Where in New Mexioc?' and Barney back with 'Old Town' wherein Vera Mae would insist that 'Old Town' wasn't a state. This went on, unabated, for five minutes. Very little variation. Jaime was ready to scream, at the very least or maybe kill.

Later that night, Vera Mae had a heart tremor or maybe fell down or maybe she thought she fell down but the upshot was that she called the hospital and they felt that she should come in immediately for tests. Lots of tests.

So the ambulance came. We get a lot of that here at New Pointe. Seriously, about one a night on average. People fall, their heart beats irregularly or they start bleeding for no reason. The ambulance comes and they go. So Vera Mae went.

In the morning, Barney came up to me like a little boy who had lost his puppy. "My girl is in the hospital." Now I might not be the swiftest but I know what comes next. "Would you like a ride to the hospital to see her?" Barney's puppy was back. We went up the next day. The day after that, we went up and got her and brought her back.

From then on, I was top drawer as far as Barney is concerned. I think he even thanked me in his own way.

And to be honest, it was kinda nice to be able to do such a little thing that meant so much to them.