Warriors Sanctuary

...week five

What a beautiful Thursday it is. The moon shows itself on the background of a delightfully blue sky. I am walking into the warriors’ sanctuary once again. I can smell the popcorn as I walk in the building through the double sliding glass doors. Today I will stay in the first floor waiting room.  As I take a seat in one of the chairs the borders the wall near a window I am able to see some of the parking lot. I sit down in a blue padded chair. It is nine o’clock in the morning.  The seat I choose is not near any of the people who roam the waiting room waiting for their appointments. It happens to be not that busy. Considering most of the people who show up to this place are older I would think that they like to be here as soon as possible. Early in the morning so that they can finish the appointment and continue their day.

To no surprise I see two employees, Hispanic, ladies sitting at the help desk. They are wearing brown slacks and white button up shirts with the red vests. Their nametag shows that one ladies name is Gloria and the other ladies name is Lucia. They look to be in their late thirties. They appear fresh, clean and happy. I look over at the popcorn machine and there is not any popcorn in the container. It does smell like popcorn in the building. I wonder if it always smells like popcorn even when there appears to be a lack of kernels.

I then glance around the room to see how many people are here for appointments. I count 9 people in total. Nine patients, two ladies working the help desk making that eleven and me for a total for twelve people in the main waiting room. There are two televisions on the wall that are on and working. One of the TV is on the news channel, Fox. The other TV is on the history channel. The history channel is playing a show on Gettysburg. I can barley hear either of the televisions, but there are subtitles on the bottom of the screens. It is nice there is some entertainment that people can look at to help maybe ease their minds of all that hassles of day-to-day life. Another plus for having the TVs is that they share knowledge. It is refreshing that some people like to learn.

Today there are mostly men in the waiting room. Seven out of the nine patients are men. Two of the women happen to be teenagers. Maybe they are here supporting their father or grandfather. I gather a lot of the people who come here have family support. There is a group of three people. Three men are sitting on the first row of chairs. They look like they are all war veterans. All three of them are not sitting next to each other. I do not think they are all here together, but I think that they just happened to sit there near the TVs. One man has airborne on his hat. It is a blue hat that says 82^nd airborne and under the lettering there are some rectangular patches. This man is white he has blue eyes and has his Sundays finest clothing on. Two seats to the right an African man sits with his hat off in the chair just to the left of him. His eyes are glued to the History Channel. He is shaking his head and then his phone ringer startles him. He kind of made an “oh” noise and grabbed his phone out of his pocket quickly.  He flips the phone open and laughs while he stares at his phone. He then presses a button and puts the phone next to his ear. The third man in the first row must have been called up for his appointment. I just noticed him getting his jacket and walking towards the door were a smiling woman sets her hand on his shoulder and asks him how his day is so far. They disappear through a doorway while the lady shuts the door behind them.

In the third row there is a teenager dressed in jeans and a pink shirt on. She has a light sweatshirt resting over the back of the chair. She is sitting next to what looks like her grandfather. He is in a wheelchair.  I have noticed that the few times I have been here when there is a man in a wheel chair the person helping them most often is a woman. This man looks sleepy. His eyes are resting closed for minutes at a time. I am not sure if he has healthy legs were he is able to walk on them. Some people in wheel chairs can walk, but maybe the leg hurts or the sprained the ankle so they are in a wheel chair. This man is wearing sweat pants and from the impression of his pants on his legs they look abnormally thin for the rest of his body. This man maybe Hispanic his skin looks dark. He could be out in the sun often. However, I think that he is Hispanic. His company is light skinned with blue eyes. She has brown hair. She has chocolate milk with her. She is reading a book. Everyone seems to be very calm and quiet. Then number 16 appears on this LED board. She gets up and says grandfather wake up they just called your number. Are you ok grandfather I hear her say? He replies, yes Leslie thank you. She helps him to the lady dressed in a white medical jacket and they to disappear through the doorway. She forgot her sweatshirt. I hope she remembers to get it on the way out.

Something grabs my attention, a bark from a dog. More like a howl. I look to my left and walking in the parking lot is a white elderly woman. She is holding a leash and at the end of the leash is a big short thick pawed, tri color, basset hound. His beautiful ears are dragging on the ground. Both the lady and the dog make my heart warm and I smile! This woman looks like she is over the age of fifty. She is wearing an Army shirt and sweatpants. She must have a hard time seeing and maybe he is her helper. I am wondering though I did not know hounds make good service pets. He must have been well trained. They enter the building and make a sharp left towards the elevator. I notice the puppy has a blue collar on and on the collar it says “Licensed Service Dog”. I look back at the waiting room and see all the people forget everything and engage their focus towards this furry short silly looking animal. I see the two men’s eyes light up in the front row. They look away from the dog and at each other and one of the men says “what a good looking hound dog”. The other smiles and says “indeed”. The dog and the lady stop outside the elevator. She hits the “up” button. The dog sits patiently waiting like he has done this routine before. I am amazed at how well he is. Hounds, for the most part, follow their nose. They are stubborn creatures. This hound appears to be well behaved and trained most excellently.  His tail is wagging and he looks up at his owner. She tells him “good dog Bozo”. Bozo must be his name! The elevator door opens two nurses walk out. The woman and the dog enter the elevator and he lets out a soft bark in excitement. The door closes and I am in wondering where they are off to.

The two women at the help desk get up and stark gathering items to make popcorn. They have in their hands, popcorn kernels, salt, and butter and paper bags to put the popcorn in for the people who want some to eat.  A security guard walks up near the two women. His is a white fellow in his late thirties. He looks confident and happy to be here. Everyone I have observed this morning appears to be happy with a smile on his or her face. He walks outside to the parking lot. I look out the window following him with my eyes. I notice ahead of him there is a small crown six or seven man. He walks up to the crowd. The crowd looks like it is filled with a few men wearing old torn dirty clothes. They look like they have been outside for weeks. Real red in skin color maybe sunburnt. Maybe they are homeless men. I always get sad when I see people like this. Especially if they served in the military and now have no home no family.  I am not sure what the security guard tells them but two of them shake hands and walk off. The other men stand there talking to the guard. They start to laugh and nod their heads in a “yes” fashion. They then disperse from the grounds.

Now servicing number eighteen a sound echoes through the room. The man who was sitting in the last row gets up grabs his newspaper and walks towards the door where the lady in white medical jacket walks him to the back. 

Today was a very calm lovely day. There was not much conversation amongst the patrons. I was able to see an animal light up the room with the most wonderful smiles. I got to see fresh popcorn being made. Over all I had a very different day than the other visits I have had at this location. It was relaxing and nice.