I don't know where to begin. The trouble with Dr. Park has been brewing for a few days now. It seemed OK today. We had an easy day. In the early evening, at about 7 o'clock, I called Dr. Park because Goldie came to the back porch. While he was putting food out for her, Roberta came to the living room. She was going to sit in an armchair. I was stuck behind the little table that I use for my laptop and some minutia. I saw her bend over to get Chicky out of the chair, heard her say: "Chicken Bone!" and before I blinked, she was on the carpet. We lifted her up to the chair, and she seemed to be alright. I asked her many times, how she felt. We laughed and joked for a while. The phone rang. It was Taka's sister from Japan. Every time she calls, it means that someone died. My heart slowed. She said in her halting English that this time it was Taka's uncle who passed away. He was 98 years old! I was sorry to hear that, but at least it weren't Taka's father or his sister's father-in-law. Both of them are in their seventies and in really bad health. Taka came home, I was serving him dinner, when Roberta asked Dr. Park to help her get from the chair to her room. And then I saw that she could hardly walk! The pain was so bad that she was sagging in her husband's arms from not being able to put any weight on her legs. I could not believe it. Dr. Park wanted to wait and go to the Emergency Room in the morning, but she and I were convinced that, if something went wrong at night, we wouldn't be able to deal with it here in the house.
The ambulance came and took her. I ran to get dressed. When I came out, Dr. Park was washing dishes. I asked him if he was coming with me. He, in a very irritated manner, told me to wait a minute. I said: "A minute has passed!" He took great offense to that, but didn't say anything because Taka was sitting right there. When we got to the hospital, though, he left the car quickly and without waiting for me made his way to the ER. In Roberta's room he proceeded to almost shout at me. I wanted to wait until we could find out the results of the tests that Roberta underwent and talk to doctor. Dr. Park wanted to just go home. When I refused, his voice became louder. Everything that happened, I guess, was about him. When I tried to get him to quiet down, he became belligerent. He was out of control.You can find out what a person is like by watching them at the times when they are unpleasantly excited. He was pointing his stubby finger at me and a couple of times he looked ready to attack me physically. In other words, he is a lout. I wish, I could at that time calm down and say that I was sorry for wronging him. I could not do it. I told him, if he hits me, he'll find himself on his butt on the floor. He wanted me to leave and go home (although a minute ago HE wanted to go home), but I said, I was Roberta's caregiver and I had to know, what was going on with her. "I can't stand this!" - he cried. I made a "good bye" gesture with my hand. Unfortunately, in Korea it means something bad. You should've seen him! It looked as if he was bouncing off the walls in his righteous anger. He shouted at me a few times never to do it. I answered that I didn't mean anything that bad (I don't really know, how bad) but I didn't care, because he needed to forget about himself and let Roberta rest.
In other words, it was a shameful scene. Finally, I forced myself to calm down and tried to read or talk to Roberta. Dr. Park ran around, huffed and puffed and settled to wait on a chair. Time to time he still told me to leave, because he was uncomfortable, or accused me of being a bad caregiver and a bad Unification Church member and that he was going to unmask me in front of everyone. I stuck to my guns and stayed there.
No comments:
Post a Comment