Talking to a friend recently, I suddenly remembered a rather traumatic job I had for a few months of freshman year. Feeling both benevolent and desperate for a job at the time, I had signed up to be a "personal aide" for a disabled student living a few floors down. By disabled I mean quadriplegic. My duties: escorting her to/from class, helping with notes/homework, feeding her lunch, and *ahem* assorted hygiene stuff. Don't even ask.
Another thing is that "Mary" couldn't speak, so she used a computer-controlled voice synthesizer thing. Each conversation took an eternity! "Hey, Mary! How's it going?" "Hi.....Chris..tine. I'm.....do...ing..fine. C..an....you..(two minutes pass)..please....ti..e...my....hair?" (She'd ask me to do really random things for her all time - tie her hair, rub lotion into her hands, look for her favorite sweater in the closet, etc.) It was hard to not think of Stephen Hawking at times like this.
The only really scary part was lunchtime. Mary had an undying love for the french fries at Sweetheart Cafe, and she asked for them almost every time. The thing with these french fries, though, is that they're cut pointy at both ends, which means they also get extra crispy in the fryer. Not a good thing to swallow when your throat's not working properly. I literally had to cut the ends off of every...single....fry. Then I had to cut the blunted fries into smaller pieces before finally feeding them to her. I don't know if you've ever heard a quadriplegic person swallow, but it sounds awful. I freaked out the first time thinking I made her choke. Oh, how could I almost forget about the juice? That made me almost pass out! I also used to worry about what would happen if she got hugely overweight eating french fries and being in her chair all the time.
I still can't believe I actually had this job, except that I remember how exhausted I'd feel after a shift. Some of the (larger, stronger) aides actually lifted her out of the chair for restroom breaks and showers - thank God I'm too small for that! I can't imagine having no privacy at all and being forced to rely on complete strangers for even the most basic things. I wonder how Mary's doing now. The last time I saw her was three years ago on campus from too far away to say hello.
Wow Christine! That's really something. Takes a lot to do a job like that.
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