Mildred is rising.
An expression of satisfaction crosses Johnson’s face. He has served a function today; he has prevented Mildred from consuming a piece of plastic or sliver of wood.
Johnson loves to gab and tease. Recently a 97-year-old woman friend was filling Johnson in on her boyfriend. “Mama,” Johnson inquired, “what you gonna do with a boyfriend?” The woman eyeballed him squarely. “What you think I’m going to do,” she snapped back. Johnson often inquires about Irma’s husband, and she usually responds with a spate of unintelligible blather. One day when Johnson asked about Irma’s better half, she hit him over the head with her doll.
Or in a nursing home. “I tell you this,” says Johnson, “when the day comes that I ever have to go to a nursing home, I hope God comes and takes me out of this world. Nursing homes are no place for a senior citizen. They treat people like dogs there. We sometimes go visit folks who used to be here with us, after they have gone off to different homes. You see people lying there wet, messed up all day long. It’s disgusting.”
Until recently, day care has been largely the province of nonprofit institutions, but now independent businessmen are entering the field. One major corporation has even established elder care on its own premises as a way of hanging on to its employees–much as corporations presently furnish child care to satisfy young parents. While many states, including Illinois, are subsidizing adult day care with a patchwork of funding, the U.S. Congress is now looking at the idea of making day care part of medicare entitlements.
As they dine, Johnson and Cordero touch on many subjects. They bemoan the slaughter in Tiananmen Square and the political hole that Harold Washington’s death has left. Neither quite knows what significance to attach to Ferdinand Marcos’s impending death. Cordero tells Johnson it’s easy to learn touch typing, even at his age, but he doubts it. The conversation moves on to computers and computer mistakes; Johnson contends there are many, especially by the greedy gas company. That leads to a discourse on science.
