Story of Apple Village


 About 10 years ago I was working as a C.N.A at Apple Village in Layton. I had been working there for 9 months or so and was working as a Med Aide, where the nurse had trained me to pass out the medications to all the residents under her license. In some states you have to have a license, but at this point it was okay as long as we were working underneath a nurses license. Whenever I wasn't working as a med/aide I would be working in the Alzheimer's lock down unit which I really enjoyed. This job was one of my favorites and I learned how much I loved taking care of people, helping me understand my chosen career path of being a nurse was the right decision.

One night while working I took care of a man who was not doing very well. He was declining rapidly and we did not think he would make it through the night. He was a DNR but had no family in his room despite his condition. I called his family and let them know of his condition and that tonight may be the last time they would see his dad in this earthly life. Without going into detail, they just told me they would not be able to come tonight to be with him. I knew the night CNA's (since there aren't as many) would not have time to go in and check on him very often with the many other residents they had to take care of. So when I got off at 10pm, I clocked out and went in his room to be with him. I don't remember all the details of the night, but I remember his breathing had changed to what they call Cheyne-Stokes Breathing and it sounded like he had the "death rattle" meaning his death was imminent. I remember sitting by him and saying a little prayer for him and feeling the spirit really strong in that room. Shortly after he took his last breathe while I was in the room and I went and got the night CNA's who then called and notified the family of his passing. I then headed home for the night.

Shortly after his death I had heard that his funeral was going to be in St. George. Since I had this precious moment with him, I really wanted to go to the funeral. I can't remember if anybody went with me or not. But I remembered going to the funeral and having someone come up to me to thank me for being with their father and taking good care of him.

Fast forward 10 years to a few months ago...........

I was working at my current workplace as a nurse (Pineview Transitional Rehab) and went into a room to check a pt's blood sugar when I recognized a face. I couldn't remember where I knew her from, but she immediately said "You are Christie. I remember you. I have talked about you to several people over the years". I was shocked.

She then preceeded to ask me if I was the CNA who went to a pt's funeral in St. George. I told her yes it was me. She asked me if I knew the "full story" of what happened with that resident. I said, "I think so". But I was definitely wrong.

Mary was her name and she was the activities Director at Apple Village. She told me how this resident had not been doing very well and when Mary asked him if there was anything she could do for him, he told her that he was going "home" in 3 weeks and he needed to contact his son who he hadn't seen or spoken to for several years. Mary asked him "home or pointing up into the air...home?" And this resident pointed up in the air and said "home". Mary then started looking into getting the contact info for this residents son but didn't have much success. The weeks went by and he kept telling her "two weeks left", "4 days left" etc.. until it was the night before the 3 weeks were up and Mary had noticed that this resident wasn't at dinner and was told by the CNA's that he wasn't feeling well and was in his room. Mary had been so busy working and didn't get to finding his son's info. She did a lot of research that night but didn't come up with anything. She knew the resident was right and he was out of time to contact his son.

So Mary went into his room and told him that she couldn't find his son's information, but she thought they could write a letter to him that she would make sure he obtained when they did find him. The resident was in and out of sleep and couldn't come up with the words to write to his son. So Mary prayed that they could have help and in Mary's words "As sure as day. I heard someone speaking as to what to say and quickly wrote as fast as I could the words I was hearing". She then read it to the resident who said "that is good". He then went back to sleep and Mary took the letter with her. Mary had young kids at home and was worried the resident would pass away that night but couldn't be there herself, so she contacted the family. The family apparently had a really tough time when their mom passed away and it was a long process, so they didn't want to go through it all again until it was really time to be there with him. They did not think he would pass away that night.

Mary reluctantly went home thinking about the resident all night and found out he had passed away the next day. After the funeral the family came and gave Mary and thanks for being there for him and helping him write the letter to his son. Apparently he had two sons. One he was in contact with and was a good man, and the other who had gotten into drugs and drinking and really struggled. The "good man" was really upset that his brother who had not lived his life well had received this amazing letter from his father but he received nothing from him. Despite his frustration, he wanted to thank Mary. He also asked about "Christie" the CNA who took care of his father. He told her that Christie came to the funeral and was stopped by a man who nobody recognized at the funeral who told Christie "(resident's name) wanted to thank you for being there for him, and tell Mary thank you for helping him write that letter to his son".

Mary asked me if I remembered any of this. I told her I remembered being thanked and not knowing any family I didn't know who was thanking me. I did not remember the words that were spoken to me, because I was shy and just quickly brushed it off with "your welcome" feeling awkward being thanked and gaining attention.

Mary just smiled as she told this story and thanked me for my example. She told me that she has told this story several times over the years and it is one of her favorites to this day.

Now, I know this is a long story but I wanted to document it before I forgot. This just goes to show how much of an impact we may have in other people's lives without even realizing it. I thought about this and can't help but think what it will be like in Heaven when we see ancestors or people that we didn't know we impacted will thank us for our earthly help.

Working in the medical field we see a lot of sadness and it can be really hard, but stories like this or experiences like this make it all worth it :)