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Trip to Dublin, Ireland: Week of February 21, 2000
Victor Cheng travelled to Dublin, Ireland, to visit Fr. Deane at his nursing home, St. Joseph's Centre. The trip consisted of two parts: from Monday (Feb. 21) afternoon to Wednesday morning, and again from Friday evening to Sunday morning.
Trip Summary
After arriving at Dublin and checking in at the hotel, I went to visit Fr. Deane for the first time at St. Joseph's Centre. I arrived there at about 5pm. Fr. Deane was in the middle of his "tea," which consisted of a cup of tea and a jam (or, in American terminology, jelly) sandwich. Fr. Deane seemed to recogize me as someone he knew, but did not really remember exactly who I was, as he greeted me by some name I had not heard of. He seemed to have a hard time with facts at that point, as he was talking about two boys being killed the night before and bullets flying around. I observed that, while he was talking to me in English, he was constantly talking to the nurses and other residents in Cantonese. I guess he was more familiar with their presence and did not realize that none of them would understand him. After an hour or so, I left him with the nurses to prepare him for the night. That evening, I contacted Chris and Bosco Keown and arranged to meet with them the next day to take Fr. Deane out to lunch.
At noon on Tuesday, I arrived at the nursing home and met Chris and Bosco for the first time. Fr. Deane seemed a lot more alert and did recognize me and remembered my name. We got him up from the wheelchair and he walked with help to the car. We left for a Chinese restaurant mid-way between the nursing home and Dublin for lunch.
Shortly after we settled down in the restaurant, David T.H. Leung showed up with his family — wife Michelle, daughter Eve, and son Nicholas. As it turned out, David and his wife were visiting his children in London. That morning they called the nursing home to let them know that they were flying from London to visit Fr. Deane at lunch time. However, when Chris and Bosco were told by the staff that someone had called and would come to visit Fr. Deane, they thought it was I who called and so we left without waiting for David. David and his family had to hire a taxi to track us down from restaurant to restaurant. The little information that Bosco left with the staff seemed to have helped, and it could have been much worse since David had to return to London later in the afternoon.
The following pictures were taken during lunch on Tuesday, February 22. Please click on the image for a larger version for better viewing and printing. I have only these pictures from my camera, but David and Bosco may have many more on theirs.
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Bosco, Chris, David, Victor, Michelle and Fr. Deane
(l. to r.)
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Victor and Fr. Deane
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Victor, Fr. Deane, and David (l. to r.)
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Victor, Fr. Deane, Michelle, and David (l. to r.)
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David brought news that the old boys in Hong Kong had met the night before. Apparently they had agreed on setting up a trust fund in Hong Kong and to relocate Fr. Deane to Hong Kong. This was all welcome news.
After lunch we returned to the nursing home. David had to leave for the airport. At about 4pm, we left Fr. Deane with the nurses to help clean him up. I returned to the nursing home at 6pm. I found Fr. Deane left alone in the dining area in his wheelchair and the staff had already cleaned up the place after tea time. He appeared to be again experiencing sundowning like the day before and was not making much sense. He was obviously annoyed by the wooden board restraining him to the wheelchair as he was trying to remore it all the time. After about an hour, I wheeled him back to his room and left him with the nurses.
On Wednesday I had to leave for the airport early in the morning and did not get to visit Fr. Deane. When I returned to Dublin Friday night, I called up Bosco from the airport and arranged to meet with him the next day for lunch again.
On Saturday, I arrived at the nursing home and found Fr. Deane all prepared to go out to lunch with us. Again we were able to get Fr. Deane to get up and walk to the car. Bosco suggested European food for lunch, but Fr. Deane quite definitively requested Chinese food. We went back to the same restaurant, but it was closed on Saturdays. We ended up having to go to another nearby Chinese restaurant. This one required climbing up a flight of stairs to the second floor. Fr. Deane managed it with a bit of work. Coming down the stairs after lunch also showed a certain level of difficulty. After we returned to the nursing home, we had Fr. Deane walk around the rooms a couple of times. He was able to walk by himself with cane in hand but no help otherwise, although he was easily tired, which was quite conceivable as he had not had much practice.
By about 4pm we again left him with the nurses to help him wash up. He was already dosing off by then. I mentioned to the nurses that I would return around 6pm to see him one last time before my departure. When I returned at 6pm, there was no one at the reception area to answer the door bell, probably a result of reduced staffing on Satrudays. Instead of banging on the windows around the building, I decided to just let it go; so I did not get to visit Fr. Deane again before my departure from Dublin the next morning.
Observations
As far as meals are concerned, I found out that they have breakfast when they get up, following by lunch around noon. Lunch is the largest meal of the day, and they sometimes call it "dinner." In early afternoon they would have a cup of tea, possibly with some biscuits. The "tea time" at 5pm is sometimes referred to as "supper." I did not have the chance to see what lunch includes, but supper is dismal and very different from what we are used to. I have no expertise on nutritional requirements, but Bosco believed that the meals were adequate. I just thought that not being able to fetch a drink of water himself may mean that even his daily supply of liquid can be questionable. My wife, who used to be a medical social worker in a San Francisco county nursing home, suggested that he be supplemented with Ensure or similar products if his nutritional requirements are in question.
His quality of life should increase tremendously if he is not restrained in what the staff called the "boxter chair," which they claim was necessary for safety reasons. Their shortage of staff was evident. More visits by paid helpers are definitely a plus.
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