Karla Noyes' Captain's Log Series

I swear, my work-life reads like a county song. Last week I attended a new employee orientation where a couple of people in management spoke. Our acting Executive Director, a 33-year Army veteran, retired as a colonel, is about 5’7”, built like a string bean, couldn’t weigh more than 100 pounds but she got that commanding voice, “Any questions?!” I think the answer was supposed to be “No… sir!” But I haven’t been in the Army and I did have a question. “Yesterday I overheard the brother of a resident say that he’d heard a nurse say something that sounded like she was stealing his money. What should you do if you hear something like that?” I was expecting an answer like, “go to your supervisor” but she, and the head of licensed care who was there, said they wanted to hear more about it. Later, my (long suffering) supervisor called me into his office and asked what I thought of the orientation. I told him it was great, I really ‘got’ the sincerity and genuine caring of management and to...

I was given a tour of the Member Services building and saw the 6 lane bowling alley, the PX (nice little store with just about anything you’d need, including ice cream), the TV studio, the Music Recording room, the bulletin board with flyers of the organized outings, keep in mind the Lincoln Theater abuts the building with lots of entertainment for the small, but wealthy, community of Yountville. The last stop was the Allied Council office. I met the secretary, L____, and picked up a menu for the resident’s cafeteria. The day was organized to honor Native Americans with special talks and presentations along with Trout, Buffalo Burgers and wild rice. L____ said she had some Native American ancestry, a great grandfather, “I’m so glad I didn’t inherit his nose!” I asked her if she’d had her DNA sequenced, yes she had, through Ancestry, and a long-lost nephew had contacted her. I boasted that I found two half-brothers. She replied quite enviously, “I don’t have any half-siblings.” I felt...

I’ve worked 8 days at the Veteran’s Home in Yountville. There are 7 of us in one good-sized room, each with a largish cubical; quite spacious. One of my ‘walls’ is a large north-east facing window, I have a Peace Plant and a Boston Fern and the 3 stuffed animals my mother made for me on my shelves. My co-workers are super nice and friendly, outspoken, joyous, loving. We have very supportive supervisors who have the attitude of facilitating their subordinates, ‘how can I help you?’ So very different from my last, brief place of employment. I am the person who first meets with the prospective residents to explain the costs and receive financial documents. (I think I’ve been training for this job my whole life.) The residents are veterans who live in California (although we have a few that have snuck in from other states, all you need is a California Driver’s License) and are over 55. That’s pretty much it. They have a preference for Purple Hearts, Distinguished Service, POWs, those...