On The Road
2
I’ve tried over and over to fully describe this part of my history at Devereux. Yes, I had the patience to deal with these sad souls and I wasn’t put off by the nasty side. I loved them. But driving the huge van with “my people” around to all their day programs–that was special.
It’s always wonderful when you fear something, then you find out it’s easy and there was no cause for your fear. That was me and the super-sized van. I got to the house at 7 AM, helped get the clients get ready, then lined them up to get into the van. I was to learn soon that once they were in the van and riding, they were calm and easy. But I didn’t know that at first. To me it was a scary situation. What if one of them had a fit or attacked another rider? I mentally prepared myself for this situation. But it never happened.
None of the early-morning people I dealt with were not nasty or mean to the clients or criticized me for not being on time. They all knew that tying a shoelace could take a half hour. So around and around I went, taking the clients to their places. It came to be a magical sequence of events. Most people would not believe this but some of my clients were funny and made me laugh. They would say humorous things. Finally, there was a radio station in Philadelphia that would play non-stop jazz pieces from 9 to 9:30 AM. That came when I had unloaded all but one lady who had to go to a more distant day program. She was always quiet in the van. So I drove slowly, enjoying the ride and the music. Sometimes life is kind to us.
lgmwriting 