My thoughts, Your thoughts

In my second visit to the Harmony Health Center I was able to talk more freely to some residents. However, I still left frustrated for not being able to talk to authorities of the place. The nursing home is privately owned, for profit organization and not linked to a chain. The last time I went, I was told that some of the residents don’t have family. So, who pays for their stay? Most of the staff didn’t want to talk, and others didn’t know.

Away from this frustration I looked for the two residents who I spoke to in my first visit. Miguel Angel Luis was taking a nap after his lunch. And Maria Conceicion Gonzalez was not in the facility because she participates in day care, which runs from Monday through Friday. I went on a Saturday. Due to the same reason, the activities director was a different person. This director let me walk freely in the halls and approach more people.

Walking around the facility made me sick. The further inside halls look exactly like a hospital. They smell exactly like a hospital. Some elders sit in wheel chairs outside their room

with pale skin, deep black eyes and a sad looks. I asked Jessica, the activities director, if I could speak to any of them. She said that it would be impossible for most of them have mental problems.

She took me to the same TV room as last time. She introduced me to Dorthy Baxter and left me alone. Dorthy Baxter was the first black resident I saw at HHC, a predominantly Hispanic nursing home. We were interrupted by a nurse telling Baxter that Bingo was cancelled and asking if she wanted to stay at Willie’s birthday party. Baxter said, “Birthday party? I thought it was yesterday and I had missed it. I hate birthday parties. I want to leave.” Baxter doesn’t like the social events in HHC, not because of the events themselves but because of the food they serve. According to her, the cake and pastries are nasty and if she says “No, thank you” to an offer, people look at her weird. She prefers to avoid the situation as a whole. But she admits to love bingo and win gifts like shampoo and perfume.

Ms. Baxter lives at HHC since 2002. Her family took her to a nursing home because they don’t have time to take care of her in the house. She has an amputated leg, heart problems and needs kidney analyses. She can’t take care of herself. “I don’t like being here, but my physical state won’t let me be anywhere else,” she says. Her family visits her and takes her the food she likes and clean clothes. “I don’t like the food here. They might be good for us but I don’t eat it,” she says. Baxter says residents are usually served veggies, rice and mash potatoes, but they are not made the way she cooks and therefore, she’ll only eat what she feels like eating. Although the family visits, it is not very often. “I’m not a baby. I don’t need them to be here all the time. I know how to make a phone call if I need. I’m not a baby,” she said.

Baxter was born in Savannah, Georgia, where she went to school. Her parents moved to Miami in 1955. Her brother and she didn’t want to move in the beginning but ended up in Miami in 1956. She is 76 years old. She has eight sisters and one brother, no children and no husband.

“I love me. I don’t do anything for looks or to please others. I only do what I want, and that’s why I want to continue to live,” she said.

We were approached by a healthy looking woman who looked 70 years old. She was smiling and speaking in Spanish to Baxter. “She’s my friend,” said Baxter. “She speaks Spanish, I speak English and somehow we manage to understand each other.”

Josefina Muñoz, a Cuban native, is actually 89 years-old. She lives at HHC due to a brain stroke. She fell from a ladder while painting her house. She lost consciousness and “awoke from her dream” in the nursing home. “Believe me or not, I dreamed that I was in this exact place. When I woke up, I was here,” she said.

Muñoz says she likes HHC but she rather be home working. “I need to work, I need money. I love to sewn and I can’t do that here. I sewn for a living and without money I can’t have anything. I need to go back home,” she said.

She has a daughter, a son and three grandchildren who visit her every week.

Muñoz found a boyfriend in HHC. She wants to leave HHC, get an apartment, marry her boyfriend and live with him. But she says that her kids don’t want her to have a boyfriend. They say her boyfriend is in heaven, referring to the dead husband.

“Josefina, he’s not your boyfriend. He’s a dirty old man. Your daughter says no, remember? Josefina does not have a boyfriend!” said Baxter to Muñoz, who stared at her and laughed.

A nurse took Josefina to have her checked. Baxter talked about her.

According to Baxter, Muñoz loves to talk. When they go to counsel meetings, Muñoz picks up the microphone and talks for hours. Baxter also admires Muñoz vanity, calling her “so cute” especially when she puts make-up on. If she doesn’t have blush, she’ll use lipstick as such. Also, that she gets very excited when University if Miami students show up to do their nails.

Posted by Mari on Sunday, October 29, 2006 at 12:13 PM | Permalink