JUNE AND THE OLD FOOL - Final Chapter

Since Charlie and Marjorie never had any children and he had outlived pretty much all his relatives except for several nephews and nieces who he'd never met, June took it upon herself to care for him.  However, as his disease progressed, she had known that one day she would be forced to do something she had been dreading for a long time, and that day, had finally arrived.  Around ten in the morning, Charlie fell asleep on the chesterfield while watching a TV program, which was often the case.  June, taking advantage of the interlude, went upstairs and packed some of his clothes and toiletry items into a small suitcase and then put it on the backseat of her car.  When he awoke, she told him they were going for a drive, she had some friends she wanted to see and introduce him to.  Being rather childlike much of the time, drifting in and out of reality, Charlie was excited to go for a drive.  However, it wasn’t friends she was taking him to see, it was a home for the elderly and dementia afflicted.  She had already made the necessary arrangements about a week before and some of his furniture and personal things had already been moved to his room.

June and Charlie arrived around noon and joined some of the residents of Pleasant Valley Home for lunch.  She was of course very nervous about Charlie and how he might react.  Tears welled up in her eyes every time she thought about leaving him behind in the care of strangers, even though they all seemed very nice and caring.  After lunch, they walked hand in hand through all the common rooms, which the residents shared.  The residents' or clients' (as the staff preferred) lodgings were located in the centre of the building.  The building had been prurposely designed in this manner, so that the more confused residents would eventually find their own places.  The outside wall of the circular walkway had full-length windows, which looked out onto an enclosed outdoor courtyard containing a small pond and gardens.  Although the individual rooms were numbered like an address on a house; a large photograph of the person living in each room was posted on the door in order to make things a little easier.  On Charlie’s door, she had placed a large blown-up black and white photo of him and Marjorie when they were very young and had not been married very long.  They both had loved swimming and the photo depicted the happy couple wearing bathing suits of that period.  She was very pretty and he looked very strong and handsome holding his wife high above his head, her legs and feet close together and her arms outstretched, as if she was flying.

After taking a stroll hand in hand throughout the open courtyard looking at all the beautiful flowers and shrubbery, they came back indoors. Unsure about what to say June asked, “How do you like living here in your new home?  It's very nice and so peaceful, especially out in the garden.”

“Do I live here?” he asked.  “It does look very familiar; how long have I lived here?”

"Not too long," she answered.

When they arrived at his door; they stood looking at the photo of him and his wife.  “She’s beautiful isn’t she?” he said, more of a statement than a question.

“Yes, very beautiful,” June replied.

When Charlie turned and looked at June as if questioning their conversation, it was if a light was turning on inside his foggy head.  “I’m feeling tired now," he said.  "Will you come and see me tomorrow?”

“Of course Charlie; I’ll come everyday to see you and bring a plate of your favourite cookies.”

When Charlie opened the door and entered the room, he suddenly turned around.  “It is very peaceful here.  However, some of the neighbours seem a bit odd.”  And then lifting his hand; gently waving  goodbye he said, "See you tomorrow.".

At the beginning of Charlie's stay, June would often take him out for walks to a nearby park, sometimes to a restaurant and on occasion, she would take him to a full-length indoor swimming pool.  He still enjoyed swimming but one day, while they were swimming together, her slightly in front of him at the deep end, she looked back and there was no Charlie!  He had sunk and was sprawled out on the bottom of the pool.  Frantically, thinking he'd had a stroke or a heart attack and was drowning, she dived down and pulled him to the surface.  Thinking he'd drowned, she pulled him as fast as she could to the shallow end of the pool.  When he opened his eyes and took a deep breath she asked him what happened and he simply said, “I forgot.”  Like many things in Charlie’s life, he was forgetting more and more with each day.  Often, when she came, rather than going for a walk even around the outside courtyard, she would just sit with him and hold his hand.  It eventually got to the point, at times, he was unable to even feed himself.  On those mornings, she would tie a large bib around his neck and feed him with a spoon.  He just stared at the wall with a blank expression on his face, as if he was searching for the long lost Charlie that was hidden deep somewhere inside of him.  It saddened her to see this once lively and virile man, even up until he was in his early 80’s, turning into an almost helpless child.

Many months had passed since Charlie first moved into Pleasant Valley Home and sometimes when June arrived, he would be quite cheerful and fairly lucid as if he had been miraculously cured – it seems there were periods, although very short term, when Charlie actually knew who she was.  Although she had to admit, her favourite times with him was when he mistakenly thought she was his wife and called her Marge; they’d even attempted making love in his room at one time and if an orgasm had been achieved, it would have only been by laughing outragously at themselves.

One warm summer day when June came to visit Charlie, since he was unable to walk any longer, she asked a couple of the staff working at Pleasant Valley Home to help her put him in a wheelchair; she was taking him to the park where they often used to walk hand in hand like new found lovers.  When they arrived at the park; noticing a bit of drool running from the corner of Charlie’s mouth, she wiped it away with a handkerchief.  Pushing the wheelchair ahead of her, she stopped at a park bench where they had often sat.  Charlie didn’t talk much anymore and often when he did, it just sounded like a lot of gibberish.  This moment in time at the park bench must have been one of Charlie’s getting-back-in-touch-days because he suddenly looked up at June and said, “Would you please push the wheelchair out on the lawn.”

June wasn’t sure if it was a good idea or not as the lawn looked damp and a little spongy.  However, seeing how important it seemed to Charlie and the broad smile on his face, she reluctantly began pushing the wheelchair onto the lawn.  When the wheelchair’s smaller front wheels suddenly sank into the ground, as hard as she tried to prevent it, the wheelchair toppled over, spilling Charlie onto the grass.  Desperately looking around to see if anyone was about to help her put Charlie back in the wheelchair she cried, “I’m so sorry Charlie; I’m so sorry I dumped you on the grass.  I see a man walking his dog not too far away; I’ll go get him to give me a hand.”

“Don’t go.  Not yet; there’s no hurry.  Let me lie here for a little while; the grass smells so good and feels so good in my hands and against my face.  I miss those days when I was just a boy and would lay in the grass, for what seemed hours, looking up at the clouds changing into almost anything I could imagine.  And look, look at all the tiny white flowers; they look like miniature daisies; I wonder what they’re called!”

The man walking the dog must have seen what happened and came over.  After he gave June a hand with Charlie and the wheelchair, she began pushing it back to Pleasant Valley Home.  They hadn’t gone very far when Charlie said, “Stop pushing the wheelchair for a moment; I’ve got something I’d like to give to you.”

She couldn’t imagine what it could be since Charlie hadn’t taken anything with him from Pleasant Valley Home, but she did as he asked; they were in no rush and she was really enjoying this time with a 'normal' Charlie.   Taking her hand in his, he looked up into her eyes and said, “Thank you for everything.  I love you June.”  Tears welled up in her eyes and spilled down her cheeks as she said, “I love you too Charlie; you old fool!”  She didn’t have to open her hand to know what was inside; she could feel the tiny petals; he had picked one of the little white flowers that had been growing in the lawn.

The next day when June arrived at Pleasant Valley Home, she was told that Charlie had passed away peacefully during the night.  As she looked at the photo of him and his wife on the door, she couldn’t remember, which were her happiest times with him; when she was June or when she was Marge but she did know when her happiest moment was and she still had the wee daisy pressed between the pages of her bible, which she kept beside her bed.

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