“Folderol and Fiddledeedee…”

“…won’t you please come home with me?”

I’ve never been hit on or flirted with more than I have since starting this job. Some of the flirting is weird, some is awkward and some of it just makes me smile. Today’s flirting made me smile.

It came straight from Mr. B. and this man is so precious! He was in the Army, married for 58 years and has an extensive family. A family that is well  documented on his walls with hundreds of pictures and he loves to talk about them. Actually, Mr. B just loves to talk. And sing. His singing is how he flirts. He sings with such abandon and every 10 notes or so, he’s actually on key. Mr. B also has the early signs of dementia and because of that he repeats/forgets things easily.

“Roses are blooming, spring’s in the air. My life is better when you are  near.”

“What a sweet night to fall in love…”

“Folderol and fiddledeedee, won’t you please come home with me.”

He’s sung all of this to me today. This afternoon,  I went into the dining room to walk him back to his room and, for the 15th time, he sang, “Folderol and fiddledeedee, won’t you please come home with me?”  Without thinking(and rather loudly because he’s hard of hearing), I responded, “No, but I’ll walk you to your door and maybe I’ll even hug you goodnight!” How was I to know that right at that moment every one of the 25 people and 5 servers in the room would stop talking at the same time? How could I know that they would hear every word I said?  With the red began to creep up my neck and the whole room silently staring at me, one of the other residents let a small giggle slip. It was the straw that broke the camel’s back. The entire room collapsed into gut wrenching laughter and all I could do was stand there with my face as red as a lobster.

Mr. B thought it was hysterical and played it up for all he was worth. He looked around, grinned, waggled his eyebrows and proudly announced, “Woo wee! Today is my lucky day!”  Then, with his head held high, he strutted out the door yelling back, ” Even though you’re red, can I still have my hug?”

Apparently, it’s the one thing today that he HASN’T forgotten. I got a text this evening from a co-worker just to let me know that he was still talking about it. It’s going to be awhile before I live this down.

 

Helpful Hint: If a resident asks you to water her plants, you should probably ask which of the 7 or 8 plants in the room are real. If you don’t, you might end up watering all of them. And only one is real. Oiy.