Читать книгу My 20+ Years In America - Tatiana Shymanova - Страница 12

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Tonya noticed at the last moment that she had nearly missed her exit and took a sharp turn to the right onto exit 41 B. After the exit, there was still a ten- to fifteen-minute drive to the nursing home, depending on the traffic and lights. She had driven there almost every day for the past 2 years working as a private nursing assistant for John Leberman.

Tonya parked her car and rushed into the nursing home. In the hallway close to the main entrance she met the same people as always, sitting there every morning from the time they awoke. Some of them were waiting for their children to arrive, others observing the new arrivals out of curiosity. Tonya took the elevator to the second floor and entered John’s room.

“Oh, thank God you are here! Why are you so late?”

He was anxious, and the nurse who was with him said, “Ok, John, now you are all set” and left the room.

“John, why did you say I am late? It is still five minutes before seven,” Tonya asked him.

John looked at Tonya with a guilty smile and said, “But you should come earlier.”

Tonya understood that if he could, he would never let her leave his room, day or night.

Tonya had worked as a nursing assistant at the VNA and hospice agencies for three years before she went to work privately. She was given the most difficult cases because of her reputation of being able to handle every situation and to get along with every one of her patients and their families.

Her co-workers would come once and leave if the patient was too difficult to deal with, but Tonya was always able to win them over. John Leberman proved to be the most difficult and toughest task for her. But it had been a long journey that had brought Tonya to America and her job with John.