No Family

After Uncle Johns fourth week in the nursing home, I went to visit him. The previous few times, he has thought I was staff at the care center, so I figured I would use that to my advantage.

I decided to start with something that I would hope he could tell me about. He spoke very quietly and was laying down, so some of what I will repeat here might be incorrect because it was difficult to hear him at times and I will mark those times with [ ].

I asked him about his family and if he had any that came to visit him. His reply, “Nope. No none that visit me.” So I asked “No wife, or children?”

“No I never got married. Never found a woman [sly] enough to handle me. I never found the right one.”

“None close enough to being the right one?”

“No.”

The reason I had asked this was because Tina had found a letter from a Vera Bradley addressed to Uncle John that spoke gratitude for the flowers he had sent her on various occasions. I was hoping I could get some of the truth behind this, but no luck.

I continued my interview with a question about any siblings he had and his family.

“I have no family that comes to visit me.”
“No siblings? Brothers or sisters?”

“Well, I guess I have a sister. Jenny is her name.” He confirmed that he knew she lived in Toledo, but he had not seen her in a long time. Which is slightly false, he saw her last week and two weeks before that. I will give him the benefit of the doubt because she can not drive and since Barb recently had heart surgery, she can not drive long distances either.

When I asked how many siblings he had, he correctly said he had seven siblings. I did not want to force him too much and so decided to not ask what their names were.

He told me that he wasn’t too busy for family or women; he just never found the right one. So I asked him what he did for a living to use up his time. He said he didn’t work. He helped on the farm, and that way it saved him money because he did not have to hire anyone.