October 11, 2004

Why Some Old People Are Mean

About a year ago, the King's grandmother was forced to put her 88-year-old husband in a nursing home. She didn't want to, and had just sold their home of 30 years and moved him into a new house with tons of special amenities to help him, as he is now wheelchair bound and can't get around much. However, just after buying the house, he got very ill and she couldn't care for him anymore.

It is imperative to her that his life be as much like it was before he moved into the home as possible. Therefore, every day she goes to the nursing home and picks up his dirty clothes, takes them home, launders and irons them, and returns them, although she herself is 83 and can hardly drive or walk much. She also changes his sheets and diapers and cooks him homemade meals, which she delivers to him at the nursing home.

In exchange, and after over 55 years of marriage, Grandpa has turned into a total prick. He acts as if she isn't in the room when she comes to visit, and his only words to her are often, "My underwear are dirty. Why didn't you bring me the new ones yet?" Otherwise, he ignores her. However, he is in lust with the pretty, blonde nurse who bathes him at the home, and he gives her candy and food that his wife brings him, in an attempt to get her to bathe him more than every other day. Apparently she works seven days in a row and then gets four days off, and when she's off work, he's ruder than ever to his wife and loudly asks, "Where's the nurse? I want her to take care of me!" while craning to see around his wife, as if the nurse might be hiding behind her. Jerk.

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