Tomorrow's Vengeance

THIRTEEN

‘Depression is not a normal part of aging. Studies show that most seniors feel satisfied with their lives, despite having more illnesses or physical problems. However, when older adults do have depression, it may be overlooked because seniors may show different, less obvious symptoms. They may be less likely to experience or admit to feelings of sadness or grief.’

National Institute of Mental Health: www.nimh.nih.gov

A couple of days went by before I was able to return to the memory unit.

I found Nancy Harper in bed with the covers drawn up to her chin, her fingers braided neatly across her breast which was rising and falling with every slow, even breath. At first I thought she was napping, but when I tiptoed closer I noticed that her eyes were open and she was staring at the ceiling. Gone were the carefully enhanced eyebrows and the blusher on her cheeks. Her hair was a tangle of unruly curls, white at the roots, and the lovely, decorative combs she favored were nowhere to be seen.

‘Nancy? It’s Hannah. How are you doing today?’

‘Who?’

‘Hannah Ives. I’ve come to read to you if you feel up to it.’

‘Go away.’

‘Are you hungry? Can I bring you a snack?’

‘I said go away.’

As I was considering whether to take her summary dismissal seriously or not, she turned on her side and inched up the sheets until she was in a sitting position. After grabbing her pillow and savagely punching it into submission, she settled back against the flowered pillowcase and said, ‘I don’t want you. I want Frank.’

Was she having a lucid moment? Did she mean ‘Frank’ as in ‘Frank the man I married,’ or did she mean, ‘Frank, the guy across the hall whose real name is Jerry’?

‘Do you want me to see if I can find him?’ I asked.

Her eyes locked on mine. ‘Frank will know what to do.’

‘I’ll go look for him then,’ I said.

Outside in the hallway I paused, trying to remember which of the fourteen rooms that extended along both sides of the corridor belonged to Jerry Wolcott. On the unforgettable occasion when I’d seen him last he’d been in Nancy’s room. Fortunately, each room had a framed name plate screwed to the wall outside the door, so I had to walk only a few yards before I found his: Jerry Wolcott from Pikesville, Maryland. I am a retired banker. I enjoy golf and watching the Baltimore Ravens play football. It was illustrated with crayon drawings and magazine cutouts by someone who clearly loved him; a grandchild, perhaps.

The door was shut so I knocked gently. ‘Mr Wolcott? Jerry?’ I knocked again, more loudly this time, figuring the old guy might be hard of hearing. ‘Jerry?’

When he didn’t answer I pushed the door open and peeked inside.

Except for a chair, an end table and a bed stripped down to the mattress, the room was empty. I stiffened, stepped back and took a deep breath as the significance of the empty, sterile room sank in. Jerry Wolcott, Nancy’s beloved companion, had passed away.

I hadn’t known the man all that well but the realization still stung. I pulled the door shut behind me and leaned against the chair rail in the hall, digging my fingernails into my palms, unsuccessfully fighting off the tears.

That was where Elaine Broering, the memory unit supervisor, found me a few minutes later as she was chugging down the hallway on her way back to her office from visiting one of the residents.

‘It gets to you, doesn’t it?’ she said. Elaine pulled a clean tissue from the pocket of her Donald Duck scrubs and handed it to me. ‘Like a Girl Scout, I come prepared,’ she said with a comforting smile.

I pressed the tissue gratefully against my eyelids. ‘Thanks.’

‘Can I help in any way?’

I shook my head. ‘Nancy was asking for him, so I went to look. When I saw his empty room…’ I took a breath then let it out. ‘When did he die?’

Elaine touched my arm. ‘Mr Wolcott isn’t dead, Hannah. He’s been transferred to the memory care unit at Ginger Cove.’

A wave of relief washed over me, followed almost immediately by a flood of questions. ‘But why?’

‘The family thought it was best.’

Best? I couldn’t imagine why. Calvert Colony was a state-of-the art facility and Jerry had, by all accounts, been happy here. It couldn’t have been a financial issue, I thought to myself. I knew from talking to Naddie that although the buy-in plans for Ginger Cove and Calvert Colony varied in some of the finer details, the bottom-line, long-term costs were relatively the same.

‘But doesn’t his son’s family live nearby, on East Lake Drive? You’d think they’d want their father to stay as close as possible.’

‘It was his son’s decision, Hannah. I can’t have an opinion about that.’

‘Nancy must be devastated,’ I said.

Elaine opened her mouth as if starting to say something, then her lips slammed shut around it. Her eyes locked on mine, as if weighing the pros and cons of telling tales out of school.

‘It was the sex, wasn’t it?’ I said, answering my own question.

Elaine sighed, confirming my suspicions. ‘You’ll read about it in the newspapers soon enough.’

Newspapers. Plural. I didn’t like the sound of that. ‘Don’t tell me…’ I began.

She nodded. ‘Nancy’s family is suing Calvert Colony, claiming she was raped and that we failed to protect her from a dangerous predator.’

‘But that’s nonsense! Those two are truly in love. You know that and so do I.’

Elaine nodded. ‘It’s a damn shame. You should have seen Nancy before Jerry came into her life. Baggy double-knit pants with elasticized waistbands, soup-stained sweatshirts, shoes if she felt like it – and she usually didn’t. We’d have to force them on her. After Jerry she dug into her closet again. Pulled out some classics – St Johns, Ahni, the Barbara Bush pearls. Insisted on having her hair done every week. Now?’ She shrugged. ‘Well, you were in her room. You saw her.’

‘She’s in bed.’

‘Can’t say I blame her. We check on her every thirty minutes, of course. Make sure she’s up, taking her meals, at least here in the unit. But it fries my grits that the Wolcott family didn’t warn us. They just showed up one day last week and hustled Jerry out, right in front of Nancy. He’s yelling, “What’s going on? Where are you taking me?” and she’s looking lost and confused.’ She pressed a hand to her chest. ‘Honestly, it broke my heart. She’s spent the last four days staring out the window, waiting for Jerry to come back.’

I pictured Nancy as she was a week ago wearing a classic, bright yellow shirtwaist dress, tripping the light fantastic with Jerry, who looked pretty spiffy himself in an oxford shirt and jaunty bow tie. ‘Oh, stop!’ I said, flapping a hand in front of my face. ‘You’re going to make me cry again. It’s a goddam tragedy. Romeo and Juliet. Abelard and Heloise. Star-crossed lovers thwarted at every turn by well-meaning but callous…’ I paused. ‘Not sure I want to call them “grownups.”’

‘Well, if it were my mom or dad I’d be grateful they found somebody to spend the rest of their lives with.’

‘Sometimes grieving spouses do make poor decisions,’ I said, thinking of the horrible woman my father had taken up with not too many months after my mother died. But someone had hated Darlene enough to take her out of this world before Daddy could make an even bigger mistake by marrying her. ‘But in this case,’ I continued, ‘I can’t think of two people more perfectly matched.’

A uniformed staffer pushed through the double doors butt first, dragging a vacuum cleaner. Elaine asked the woman to start work at the other end of the hallway, then said, ‘Once Tina gets going we won’t be able to hear ourselves think. Do you have to be anywhere?’ When I shook my head, she said, ‘Come with me.’

A few minutes later I was seated across from Elaine at a small, round table in the corner of her office, and she’d called out for tea. Sun poured through a picture window that looked out over a small, staff-only parking lot constructed of porous pavers through which grass was already beginning to grow. ‘Why exactly did Jerry’s son take him away?’ I asked.

‘You’ll hear it from some of the other residents anyway so I guess it’s OK to tell you. Jerry actually proposed to Nancy and when his son found out about it, well, all hell broke loose. He called Nancy a golddigger. Ridiculous.’

‘Hasn’t he heard about pre-nups?’ I asked.

‘Well, exactly. And since Nancy’s still married to the real Frank, even though she doesn’t remember him, it’s kind of a moot point.’

‘More to the point, how does Frank feel about the relationship?’ I asked.

‘Exactly. Have you met our director, Tyson Bennett?’

I nodded. She hadn’t answered my question, so I wondered where she was going. ‘We spoke. Briefly. He was making the rounds in the dining room last time I ate there.’

She smiled. ‘That’s Tyson. Very hands-on. Progressive. When it was clear that a relationship was blossoming between Nancy and Jerry, Tyson called a staff meeting. He believed that Nancy and Jerry’s relationship was beneficial to their well-being and so did our resident psychologist. I agreed, certainly, and thought we should support it. The nursing supervisor, however, recommended keeping them apart, and even suggested prescribing drugs to help curb Jerry’s sexual urges. But Tyson is opposed to chemical restraints so that got vetoed PDQ.

‘Anyway,’ she continued, ‘Tyson decided to call both families in and talk to them about it. At the time, Nancy’s husband, Frank, was totally supportive, whatever makes her happy and all that.’

‘Like Sandra Day O’Connor,’ I commented. ‘I remember reading an article in the New York Times about it. Her husband, John, had Alzheimer’s disease and totally forgot her. He took up with another woman in the long-term care facility he was living in. Justice O’Connor said it was a relief to find him relaxed and happy, holding hands with his sweetheart whenever she visited.’

‘Exactly.’

The tea arrived. Elaine selected a Tazo Cucumber White from a wooden caddy, poured hot water into her cup then dunked the teabag up and down in it. I wasn’t really thirsty but selected a spicy ginger one that I hoped would lift my spirits.

‘As for Jerry’s son,’ Elaine continued, ‘I think he was OK with the relationship as long as it remained on his terms,’ she said thoughtfully, ticking them off on her fingers. ‘Like, you can eat meals together. And dance. Holding hands and cuddling is OK, but kissing is off-limits, and, for heaven’s sake, don’t wander off to the privacy of your room and do what the rest of us do.’ She took a sip of her hot tea then set the cup down on the saucer. ‘He insisted that his father’s heart wasn’t healthy enough for sex. Ha! I’m sorry, but if you’ve made it to age eighty-eight, having sex won’t kill you. It may even help prolong your life.’

‘What did he expect his poor father to do?’ I wondered aloud. ‘Lie around all day watching reruns of Gilligan’s Island, waiting for the arrival of Oscar the Death-Sniffing Cat?’

Elaine chortled. ‘We have pets and visiting comfort dogs here at Blackwalnut Hall too, but so far none have demonstrated the kind of supersensory ability that Oscar seems to have. It would certainly make my job easier.’

‘If it’s true that touch is often the last sense to deteriorate,’ I said, getting back to the subject of physical contact, ‘I can understand why massages, facials and mani-pedis can be so therapeutic, especially for your dementia patients. Massages with Garnelle at Spa Paradiso are my main vice,’ I added. ‘They feel so good they ought to be illegal.’

‘I hear her hands are insured by Lloyds of London.’ Elaine grinned. ‘Seriously, though, human touch is super critical. No matter how old you are you never outgrow the need for that kind of loving, physical comfort. Tyson believes that the elderly have a right to intimacy,’ she continued after a moment. ‘We don’t treat it like a behavioral problem. The staff here are trained to monitor developing relationships, particularly among our residents with impaired memory, to make sure they’re mutually enjoyable. I don’t know about you, but I hope to have another shot at it when I get to be ninety.’

‘Even in the short time I’ve been volunteering here,’ I said, ‘it became obvious to me that Nancy and Jerry’s relationship was exactly that – mutually enjoyable. As for the sex? It looked entirely consensual to me.’

‘Well, the Maryland Office of Health Care Quality might want to argue with you about that. Seems they have initiated an investigation.’

‘I’ve heard about it. They’ve asked me for an interview. But what I don’t understand is if it wasn’t Tyson, who reported it and why? Was Nancy injured?’

‘Of course not! When you brought the incident to our attention, I grabbed Heather and we went down to Nancy’s room right away. Nancy and Jerry were still, uh, involved. It took two of us to separate them, and neither of them was happy about it! Jerry thought we were attacking Nancy and tried to protect her, while Nancy was screaming bloody murder. I haven’t heard such language since my husband was working on our tax returns.’ Elaine leaned forward and whispered, ‘If anyone needed a doctor, it was me. Nancy bites.’ She extended an arm where a ragged, red semi-circle confirmed her claim. ‘Thank goodness my tetanus shots were up to date.’

‘Ouch,’ I said.

‘After we got Jerry calmed down and settled back in his own room we called the doctor to take a look at Nancy,’ Elaine continued. ‘Aside from a bit of redness on her thighs and…’ she cleared her throat, ‘you know where, which would be entirely normal under the circumstances, there was nothing at all wrong with her.’

‘So, I don’t understand. What is there for the State of Maryland to investigate?’

‘They claim that Nancy’s advanced dementia made it impossible for her to give informed consent.’

I recalled, with some embarrassment, the cries of pleasure that I had – albeit unintentionally – overheard; sounds that everyone in America was familiar with thanks to Meg Ryan’s famous Katz’s Deli performance in the movie When Harry Met Sally.

‘What nonsense,’ I said. ‘Nancy was a willing participant, otherwise she would have been screaming – and she knows how to scream, that’s for sure – or trying to fight Jerry off.’ I pointed to Elaine’s wound. ‘Exhibit A. But, she was doing none of those things. She may not remember who the president is, or that she already has a husband, or even what day of the week it is, but she definitely wanted to have sex with Jerry.’

Elaine sighed. ‘Honestly, I’m worried. If this lawsuit goes against us we’ll be in danger of losing our Medicare/Medicaid certification and that would be a serious blow, financial and otherwise.’

‘You’d think there’d be a clearer policy on this sort of thing,’ I said. ‘Isn’t anyone paying attention? Think of all the baby-boomers who are rapidly joining the ranks of the elderly and terminally confused.’

‘That’s just it, Hannah. The people who brought us the sexual revolution are now living together in nursing homes instead of communes. And, call me a revolutionary, but if they want to smoke pot and shag, I say, let ’em.’

Back in the day, my older sister, Ruth, had been a make-love-not-war, flower-in-the-riot-gun kind of gal. If ever the time came for her to check into a nursing home, I pity anyone who tried to prevent her from having sex.

As I drove home to my empty house, I couldn’t help thinking that this was going to end up badly for everyone involved.