Remembering awkward moments

I was on facebook earlier this week and saw a post in a para peer group that brought me back to a moment when I was first married. The person posting was asking if any of us had ever had an “awkward” moment when someone thought we were a patient instead of someone else just because of the chair.

In general this does NOT happen, but I do recall one incident.

We were visiting my husband’s grandmother in an assisted living facility and a little old lady stopped me and asked me for a stamp when I first rolled in. She said she’d pay me back later and asked me what my room number was. I told her I wasn’t a patient and the look on her face was priceless. She was very shocked.

It happened again later on that night. I was waiting for my husband to pull the car around because it was late and the main entrance was closed or it was raining? I can’t remember exactly. Anyways, as I’m sitting there waiting this nurse or aide comes up to me and grabs my handles (or attempts to grab them, they may not have been on and that may have been part of the humor. It was 9 years ago, give me some slack! ) and she starts scolding me about being out of my room and starts to roll me while asking where my room is. I grab my self and stop her. She looks at me and gets a horrified look on her face when she doesn’t recognize me and I tell her I am NOT a patient/resident.