In the dark

It was 3:30 pm.

The bingo-ers were hustling out of the activity room as fast as their little walkers and wheelchairs would take them. (I know what you're thinking, but some of them are actually pretty fast!)

A few of us CNA's were running the elevator system, working as efficiently as possible. (I'm a pro at filling the elevators, just saying.)

In the midst of the hustle, we saw a flicker and watched as the whole building lost power except the light in the elevator.

"Get them out!" someone said.

So we quickly got our residents out of the elevator, four in all.

The other aides rushed to their halls to get people's oxygen plugged into the working outlet. I was left upstairs to sit with the stranded residents.

"So," I started, "how'd we do at bingo today, ladies?"

It's refreshing to have a little chat with my residents once in a while. We talked about bingo, grandkids, family visits, and joked about who was going to be piggy-backed down the stairs first.

We decided we were very grateful that it was still light outside when the power went out, however it did stay off for another four hours. After realizing that the other elevator in the facility was connected to the generator, we got everyone back to their rightful places.

I've never heard the halls so quiet, even on midnights, as when the power was out. Throughout the night we had to do some major rearranging of resident's rooms to get either their beds or chairs plugged into the red plugs (which were the ones connected to the generator). Some of our residents were stuck in their recliners because the feet were lowered with a remote. I bet if a visitor had cruised through our hall, they would have wondered why they were seeing recliners and beds smack in the middle of resident's rooms!

It was quite a wonky day, if I may be honest. But I was surprised at how chill everyone was, for the most part. As we had dinner on paper and coffee in Styrofoam, we went around the room sharing what we were thankful for. That seemed to cheer people up.

Everybody has some type of interesting work story, so I figured I'd share my most recent one:)

In the midst of the craziness, we were told the cause of the power outage: a car accident. I'm not exactly sure what happened with the accident on 65, but my prayers go out to all the families and friends effected by it.