our stuff won't survive us for long

our stuff won't survive us for long

fiction
edward w pritchard


Sad it was when I worked in a nursing home as a college student when an old timer, man or woman
died at the nursing home without any surviving spouse or friends or family who cared enough to get their few personal items out of their dresser drawers there in the room after they passed on.

We, the RN Nurse and I the orderly had to hurry and go through the pictures and love notes of some old ladies first boyfriend who her husband never talked about because there at the nursing home another old man or woman needed the room for their last remaining years. Of course by then, when the next old person nursing home resident  passed on, I the orderly would have another part time college job and the RN would have a new job at a higher salary at the Children's hospital. That's the cycle of life I suppose. Someday the RN would be like the old lady who died and I would be like the dead husband.

I am not sure where most people's stuff ends up if they aren't prominent enough to have a presidential museum built to honor their personal items someday or if their daughters aren't organized enough to distribute the things of the deceased among the grand children. I do remember that the janitor there
at the nursing home I worked at would often burn the recently deceased things in the incinerator behind the building. One of my jobs as orderly was to watch the janitor burn the stuff because if the nursing home staff took things that would be considered stealing. I thought it was a little sad then but the janitor was a bit more c'est la vie and would switch the conversation between us to which of the nurses did I think was best built. After the burning I had to race back inside to help the new resident put her memorabilia away. Some times the new old lady would cry and I could see her soul as it was when she was a beautiful young woman. After that I would drive to college for class, and after that I would watch the years fly by.

When I remember working in a nursing home, and things like this little story sometimes I'll have  a few beers if it's not too early in the morning, or I'll try to see the grand children, or I'll give some of my relatives a bible or Koran but usually I'll just get rid of some of my junk and stuff early.