As the (Leisure) World Turns

I wrote this right before I left Iowa, so I would have something to post when I got home and could go to sleep more quickly!

They call them "the sweethearts."  They are definitely the talk of Mallard Point, and not necessarily in a good way.  People snicker about them behind their backs, but they don't seem to mind (or perhaps they don't even know).

B is a widower, who moved here some time ago.  He found a girlfriend here and they were an item until A, a widow, moved in, not only to this facility, but into B as well.  Out went the old girlfriend and A took her place (this is what I have gleaned from the bits and pieces I have learned over the past 3 weeks).

 

Apparently both B and A have Alzheimers.  A was found wandering the halls recently, not knowing where her apartment was.  I'm not sure if she and B are sharing living quarters, but it is clear they are smitten.

The problem with the romance is that they are moving in on other people. The dining room here is where all the action seems to take place.  The thing about the dining room here is that everyone pretty much sits in the same place for every meal.  Seats are not assigned, exactly, but everybody seems to know where everybody usually sits. 

Until B and A started eating here and sitting at the wrong tables, causing all sorts of indignation from the people whose seats they usurped.  

I thought it was all kind of silly, listening to people complain that they had been pushed out of their own table at the last meal, until last night when they were sitting at our table.  Bob was lost because our seats had been taken.  B and A had taken our spot, and our second spot, eating with Mardel and Dennis was also taken because Mardel and Dennis were going to eat in their apartment and Jenny, who insists on having her own private table (sometimes she lets another person sit with her, but usually not) had taken Mardel and Dennis' table.

What to do? What to do?

Bob wandered around, but finally confronted B and A and mentioned that they were sitting at our table.  They got up and wandered around until they found a different table.

Peace reigned again, though B got up several times to wander aimlessly around, as if looking for his table, until manager Matthew talked to him and he seemed to settle down.

I don't get this kind of drama and intrigue at Atria.  This is the stuff I will miss.  I won't be able to follow the continuing saga of B and A, or get updates from Bill about the condition of his recently injured son, or hear the latest health report about Bert, who lives next door and is in her final days.  I never got to meet Jackie's two Cavalier King Charles spaniels. I won't get to follow up on the newcomer who locked herself out of the building in the below 0 weather the other night, and just happened to be heard by Doris, who was up later than usual.  I won't get to hear what happens to the parolee boyfriend who just showed up recently.  And I won't see Renee all the time, my favorite of the employees here.

I will miss the people I met at Mallard Point, definitely not something I thought would happen when I moved to Iowa to be of some assistance to Peach.