"Buddy"

I woke up in the middle of the night with this cute story on my mind and I couldn't figure out why, other than I needed to write it down, so here goes......

After Joseph finished his training in Utah, he took the federal exam in Salt Lake City. After that he moved to California to start working and to study for the California state exam (we moved down about 6 weeks after he did). For the first few months we were here he helped out in a facility in Carmichael before being transferred to Woodland.

While he was working in Carmichael there was a man there about the age of 60 with developmental delay. He LOVED Joseph and would call him "Buddy." When Joseph was transferred to Woodland the man cried everyday because he missed his Buddy. "My Buddy left me....Buddy gone..." he would cry. Arrangements were made by the administrator and the regional administrator to have him transferred to Joseph's building so he could be with his "Buddy" again. One day Joseph had to attend a meeting at that building, arrangements weren't finalized yet, but when this man saw Joe walk through the door, he raced to him in his wheel chair saying, "Buddy, you come to get me...I go with you....today the day?" Joe had to explain that it wasn't time yet, but it would happen soon. Needless to say, the man was very sad, but a few weeks later when everything was finalized he was finally moved to Joseph's facility, and he was so excited. "Hey Buddy! I'm here with you!" Now he sees his Buddy almost everyday. Joe constantly is asked if he loves his job. He often replies, "It's an extremely hard job, but extremely rewarding at the same time!"

And when things don't feel so rewarding, they are definitely interesting and funny. There's a good mix of people who are residents at his facility, there are a few people there who are about the same age as us, some of them have suffered brain injuries that have caused physical disabilities and and some have physical disabilities but their brains function, and some have been in accidents or have had surgery and are there for physical/occuaptional/speech therapy before they are able to go home and some are just old and will stay there until they pass away. One of the women about our age said to Joe one day, "You are so damn handsome. I could sop you up with gravy and eat you."

Another older woman who has lost her mind thinks that Joseph is her lover. She is the cutest little lady. I met her one day while she was doing therapy and she looks perfectly healthy and like a cute refined little grandma, but her mind is gone. Everytime he goes to say hi and to see how she is doing she says something to this effect, "You've got to get all these people out of the room if we're going to make love." Things like this definitely keep his job interesting. And hey, who in their right(or wrong)mind wouldn't have the hots for a nice, handsome guy dressed in a white shirt, suit and tie everyday.