Small World

I found myself experiencing a bit of a role reversal this past week. My mom is currently laid up after having major surgery a couple of weeks ago. Unfortunately her dad, who is 95 and has enjoyed amazing health both mentally and physically until now, found himself being rushed to the hospital in an ambulance last weekend. My sister and I found ourselves in charge of making major decisions for our grandfather since my mom is still immobile.

On Tuesday afternoon my task was visiting nursing home/rehab facilities to evaluate them for my granddad. He was going to be ready for discharge from the hospital later in the week but definitely nowhere close to being ready go home and being on his own. I was extremely uncomfortable with this task. Not only is this a huge decision that will directly impact my granddad’s daily life and care, I felt like a fish out of water. What do I know about picking a nursing home? I started googling and reading the state evaluations on homes in the area. That allowed me to rule out several right away. I found two that had stellar state evaluations, and after quizzing his doctors and nurses about their reputations and receiving good answers I set off to go see them in person.

I was fortunate to be given a tour and overview of the first facility by the Executive Director. We were talking as she showed me around their very impressive facility. I made the comment that I felt out of my depth in picking a facility like this for my granddad even though I kind of did the same thing for a living, only with horses and not people. She paused when I made that comment and said “you told me you are from the Nashville area right?” I said yes (I was in Memphis at the time). She told me that her daughter-in-law had retired her horse to a wonderful farm in that area, and that her own daughter had leased the horse and ridden him for a few years, and he had been a family member. I asked the horse’s name and she said Fuzzy Punch.

Well, it really is an incredibly small world sometimes isn’t it? I felt so much more at ease after that. I’d had a good feeling about the facility and the people I had met there from the moment I walked in. At that point I felt like I had been given a sign from above that everything was going to be ok and it would work out. As it turned out they were going to have an opening available at just the right time for us. I could have cried from relief at that point. I called Jason and relayed my experience to him and ended the conversation with “God Bless Fuzzy Punch, he really made me feel ok about all of this.” Then I called my mom and told her the whole story, and that they were even going to have a bed available for us. Fuzzy Punch was a favorite of everyone so she knew exactly who he was, and the fact that The Fuzz played a role in our family’s journey last week instantly made her feel better as well.

I am happy to report that my granddad got settled into his new digs at the end of the week and he is quite pleased with everything so far. I had a sense of peace about everything before his arrival so I am not at all surprised that he is happy. I emailed him a picture of Fuzzy Punch so he could know exactly who his guardian angel had been through the last week (yes, my granddad is 95 and he does email). I’ve always said that the horses at our farm and the people associated with them are special, but sometimes even I don’t realize just how special all of them are. I was reminded of that this week, and I am thankful to have all of them in my life.

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Apollo is one happy horse, coated with dirt and parked in front of unlimited hay