Love in the Nursing Home

“What’s wrong, Mildred?” asked Nurse Baker. “Was your dinner bad?”

“Oh, no,” said Mildred. “I just wondered where Anthony was I haven’t seen him. He usually sits right over there.” She pointed her wrinkled finger to the far corner of the room.

Though her skin was rumpled, and her fingers bent with arthritis, Mildred was always perfectly coiffed and immaculately dressed.

“I’m sure he just went to eat in the other lunch room,” replied Nurse Baker, affectionately patting her slightly bowed back.

That evening’s meal found Mildred in the east dining room, quietly scanning the room for Anthony. She didn’t see him and became concerned.

“I’m sure he’s just eating in the west dining room,” said Nurse Pine, affectionately patting Mildred’s frail shoulder.

After Mildred finished her meal, she slowly started to roll herself toward her room. She suddenly decided to go down another hall to go by Anthony’s room to see if he was okay. She wouldn’t go in, of course. That wouldn’t be proper.

As she wheeled near his room, Mildred heard Anthony groaning. She wheeled a little faster, worried that he was hurt.

Wheeling to his doorway, Mildred saw Anthony struggling to stand upright with a walker. Anthony doesn’t use a walker.

“Are you okay?” she called from the doorway.

Anthony shuffled around to his chair and gingerly sat in it. “I’m fine, now. I cracked my hip when I fell.”

“I hadn’t heard that you had fallen.”

“Did you worry? I didn’t want you to be concerned.”

“Of course, I was concerned. You weren’t in the dining room. You’re my friend. I noticed.”

“I’m sorry, but I’m starting to do better, now. Walking to the dining room is more than I can handle, right now.”

“Can you make it out here to the seats, and we can talk?”

“Certainly, but you will have to be patient. I walk like an old man,” Anthony chuckled.

Throughout his recovery, Mildred and Anthony would sit and talk in the seating area.

The two grew closer, and one day Anthony had the nurse’s aid get a little bear for Mildred.

When he gave it to her, Anthony said, “I’m too old to ask you to spend your life with an old man like me, but I wanted to give you something to remind you how special you are to me.”

Mildred wiped a tear and gave him a sweet smile. “I think you are special, too. I will keep this bear close to my heart, exactly where you are.”

Since Hank had died of a heart attack 20 years ago, Mildred never thought there would be another man with whom she could share her heart. Anthony was that man.

Mildred and Anthony spent all their abundant free time together, putting puzzles together, playing BINGO, and just talking. The nurses noticed their blossoming love and remarked how sweet it was to see love so late in life.

One night, while everyone was watching Casablanca, Anthony complained of his stomach hurting. Mildred got the nurse’s attention, and she helped Anthony back to his room and took his blood pressure.

Mildred was just wheeling by when the doctor and nurses went running into the room, pulling the curtain closed behind them. Mildred was left in the hallway to worry and pray for her beloved.

Three days later, as his grandsons carried Anthony’s casket to the hearse, Mildred held the little bear to her heart, tears streaming, but a smile on her face as she thought of the time she had spent with Anthony.

She knew that her heart was full, and she could pass, when it was time, knowing that she had loved fully and well.