Episode 7: Wanderburg and the Bullies

for a preface, see the home page of my work stories: Paradise (aka The Job)

It's breakfast time and I'm headed down the hall with a cart full of food. There's scrambled eggs and home fries, straight from the oven. There's milk and bananas and a stack of plates that keep clinking violently together. I'm on a mission...when I meet with an obstacle. It's Wanderburg, taking his time en route to a comfortable chair. I suppose old joints and old muscles and a lack of urgency in his schedule all make him prone to ambling. I slow my cart to a stop and wait patiently for him to get some headway. I know exactly where he's going. It's all part of his schedule.

Wanderburg usually begins the day in a chair in the main lobby, head to one side, snoozing. After awhile he wanders into breakfast where he rarely says more than one syllable at a time, and usually with an expression of bewilderment, as though he's just woken up and doesn't know where he is. He eats, says nothing to his fellow residents, and then scoots back out to the halls to wander. He'll stop in the kitchen and ask to have a burger for dinner. Then he heads for the other end of the building to another soft chair and falls asleep again.

Lately he was diagnosed with a contagious colon infection, so staff were required to wear gowns and gloves in his room, which were stored outside the door. Kitchen staff wore gloves and took care not to come in contact with his dishes and to sanitize anything he touched. No doubt other residents noticed these things, and gossip surrounding Wanderburg has been the topic of late among the residents, even though he is now no longer considered contagious.

Some residents tried to have him removed from the facility. Others requested to never be seated near him ever at meal times. Others simply shared whatever rumors they could about him at the breakfast table. Apparently it got so bad that several residents went to the administrator on Wanderburg's behalf to ask for an end to what had gotten out of control. The decision was made to have the administrator and several staff meet with the named Bullies and put a stop to it. The Bullies have also been required to sit with Wanderburg at his table this coming month. This all seems pretty just.

However, the sad part is that any of those things had to be done. It's disappointing to see members of what's called "The Greatest Generation" treating each other so poorly, displaying so little depth of character, and showing so little maturity. The hot topic in schools these days has been bullying, ending bullying, parents against bullying, etc. We all nod our heads, agreeing that children are brutal and need to be taught how to respect others. It's sad to witness people who haven't physically been children for 60+ years but are still acting like brutal third graders, needing someone to teach them what it means to respect another human being, no matter that person's level of popularity. 

On the upside, there's a portion who know how to be adults and didn't sit idly by. They took action to make a change and defend another person from the Bullies. As I grow up, I want to be one of them. 

It has been said that "the only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is that good people do nothing" (Edmund Burke, paraphrased), and it's good to know there's at least a few good ones out there doing something about what's wrong out there.