Philip Y. Kao PhD thesis - Research@StAndrews:FullText

his parents were born in Poland. Ryan’s father and grandfather moved to Pittsburgh to
work in a furniture store. His grandfather wanted to go back to Poland, but his father
eventually stayed, and his mother moved to America. Many years later, his father died in
a car accident, and Ryan was left to look after his mother. Ryan said that his mother
lived to eighty, and that she had a car and was very capable to do things up until the
end. He told me about his son and wife who lived not more than ten miles away from
Tacoma Pastures.
Over the next few weeks, I spent most of my time with Ryan. I visited him first thing in
the morning, and throughout the day, I took him with me to various activities and
events run by the recreation department. In addition to talking to him about his family,
the news, my family, and about me bringing him some more smokes (which I never did),
he wanted me to assist him with a few projects. One of the projects he wanted
assistance with was trying to get his wheelchair and foot pedals adjusted. Because of his
foot, and the fact that his pedals were old and needed to be realigned, I took him one
day to find Joe, the Tacoma Pastures occupational therapist and mechanic. Ryan wanted
me to come with him; he said that, “I need someone official to be with me.” As we
started to make our way towards the elevator, I notified the nurse, and she entered in a
code next to the elevator to disengage the alarm momentarily. When we made it
downstairs, Joe, who was in charge of fixing the treadmills and other gym equipment,
was already busy fixing someone else’s wheelchair stabiliser bar. Joe told us that he had
to be with another resident, but that he would come up to see Ryan after lunch.
In the following week, Ryan was still not happy with his foot pedals. At lunch, other
residents began to ask me, “So how’s Ryan?” When Ryan started making his way into
the dining room, several of the residents raised their hands in an effort to get my
attention. They began to see me as Ryan’s ‘personal caregiver’. After lunch, and after
Ryan was taken to his toilet by the caregiver, Francis said to me in the hallway, “Ryan
doesn’t get around much. Does he even listen to the radio or watch TV?” I had the
feeling that Francis was fishing for some answer or indication of Ryan’s condition. I
knew he had slight dementia, but I was still unsure of his feet, and why he had been in
the health and rehabilitation centre for so long.
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