{Karlton Bontrager}

Karlton was lazing around on Saturday when I found him. Although it had been sunny, by the time I made it to the hospital, it had become colder and drizzly. But I thought it might still be nice to go out for a drive.

First, though, I told Karlton that I was going to start his laundry. He said he’d better go with me and find out how to use the washing machine because he’d have to do his own laundry once I left. I asked him if he might want to bake some banana bread with me as well, and he said he might.

Before I knew it, it was lunchtime. While he was eating, I asked Karlton if he wanted to go to the botanical gardens or the aquarium, but he wasn’t interested. “You don’t want to do anything, do you!?” I told him, to which he replied, “I said we could do laundry and some cooking.” What exciting plans he likes to make!

The events coordinator was willing to take patients for a drive, so I asked her if she might drop Karlton and me off to see a movie. She and another patient ended up coming along with us to see Bend it Like Beckham. I noticed Karlton with his eyes closed a few times during the movie. For awhile, his head was even bowed. When it was over, I asked if he’d enjoyed the parts he’d seen. He insisted that he’d seen almost all of it(!) and that it was pretty good.

After dinner, which, unusually, Karlton ate almost all of, I decided to make those banana bread muffins. By then, Karlton said he was no longer interested in helping out. But he was willing to eat a few! He decided that they wouldn’t be nearly as good once they had cooled down, and he didn’t want to eat too many (neither did I), so he gave some of them away to the nurses.

During this time, he also worked on an essay that was assigned to him by the speech language therapist. On one hand, Karlton was complaining about the assignment, but on the other, he said that it was generally so boring around the ward that he didn’t mind having something to do.

Then Karlton wanted to go to bed. I was busy at the time, so he had a nurse help him out. I walked into his room part way through to see that he was being much more independent than when I help him. Although I do try to make him do things on his own, I hadn’t quite realized until then how much he’s willing to let me do for him, despite being capable himself. But he does realize that he will need to do much more on his own once I’ve returned to the States; hopefully he’ll take steps to being more and more independent.