Grocery Shopping

I received a call this morning from the hospice volunteer office. One of their patients was out of groceries. Could I help? I said sure and called the patient to make arrangements. I expected to get a list and run to the store, but it wasn’t quite that simple. The 83-year-old patient is Italian and speaks very little English. Her husband is legally blind but speaks good English. They wanted to go to the store and do their own shopping. I can understand that. I would definitely not have picked the right food. So we loaded her wheelchair into the car and got everyone settled. First we had to go to the bank and cash their check, then on to the store. I pushed the wheelchair and the husband pushed the grocery cart. This couple expresses their love by fussing and arguing loudly with one another. It got to be pretty funny as we tried to find just what she wanted. “No, not that one. Don’t you know what I want?” Then they would fuss in Italian while I tried to figure out what kind of fish she wanted. After squeezing all the plums and peaches and examining all the mushrooms we made our purchase and loaded people and groceries back into the car.

Now we just needed to stop by the pharmacy for his heart medicine. He said he would not need any money for his prescription because the insurance would pay for it. He went into the pharmacy while we waited in the car. In a few minutes he was back, and he was fuming. “What is wrong with this country? What has President Bush done for seniors? Nothing! He has done nothing for me and my wife!” It seems his heart medicine was going to cost $150, and he did not have $150. So we went home. I told him to call the social worker at hospice. People there are good at figuring out how to work with insurance and they could help him. I left my phone number and told them to call whenever they needed a ride to the store.

Growing old is not always easy.