He Could Go Home Again - June 14, 2008

All spring Dale has been talking about going back home. Since getting an electric wheel chair, he has gradually ventured out of his room and even outside of the building when winter was finally gone. At first he brought up the idea of riding down to the house from the nursing home on his electric wheel chair. But after talking with a number of the nurses and aides, he agreed he doesn't have a sturdy enough chair to get across two sets of railroad tracks and a somewhat busy highway. So he agreed to let them drive him the half dozen blocks or so to his home on 3rd street. Due to a rather wet and windy early spring, and a few days of not feeling up to the trip, he wasn't able to get there in May and finally on June 14th, the weather was perfect. I happened to be in Arlington after finishing a bike tour that took me around southeast South Dakota. So before I headed back up to North Dakota, I stuck around to help with the arrangements for Dad's visit. Amy (one of his favorite nurses) told me the night before that they would take him down around 1 PM and pick him up again at 3 PM. Since we don't have any way for him to get inside the house and up the stairs, we set up a few chairs and tables next to the porch outside for him.

Mom and I cleaned up the yard the night before (we picked up 4 wheel barrows full of sticks blown down in a wind storm).

Amy laughed when she lowered him out of the van, because he took off right away and headed for the door. He said on his way down the alley - "See you later!" She said - "Don't you think I should go up and ring the doorbell for you to let them know you are here?" For some reason Mom and I were watching out the front of the house and not in the alley, so we didn't see them drive up. Amy was kind of surprised at how anxious he was to get going!

Dale adjusting his hat in the sun by the front porch with Marguerite.

The first thing we had to do was get a hat for him, the sun was pretty bright. He rode all around the house on the sidewalk, and then down the block to look at the progress on renovations on a house two doors down (he said there hadn't been much done since he saw it last fall!) Then he wanted to look at all the gutters we installed above the doors to prevent icy sidewalks, and I had to run the garage door opener for him a number of times so he could watch it from both inside and outside the garage.

Dale checking out the new gutter above the back door.

Dale making his way around the south side of the house.

Later he seemed content to sit and visit with Marguerite and just watch the cars go by just like he used to when he sat on his old porch rocker. He kept telling me that everyone has new cars.

Much to Dale's disappointment, this is as close as Nermal would get to Dale's electric wheelchair. So I carried her over so he could give her a little scratch between the ears.

I think he really enjoyed it, but he later told me he was glad to get back 'home' - and that is how he really thinks of the nursing home now I think. He tells me over and over how wonderful they are to him and the nurses and staff aren't appreciated enough.

We are hoping to get him back for a small picnic on the 4th of July if the weather holds out.