It was late afternoon when Chloe rang the doorbell for her last appointment. Within moments the door opened and a pretty brunette woman, with a few random strands of gray sprinkled into her hair, smiled at her.
“Good afternoon,” Chloe said, “how are you doing today Mrs. Arrive?”
“It’s been rough Chloe,” Kelly Arrive answered the home caregiver. “Come on in though. No matter what the day brings, I’m always glad to see you.”
“Thank you.” Said Chloe. “I look forward to seeing you folks as well. This is always the best appointment to end my workday with. I always enjoy my time here. I just wish the circumstances were different.”
“Someday when he’s all better you’ll have to come visit.” Kelly told her. “You have yet to see us at our best.”
“I’d like that.” Chloe said. “And here are the burgers.”
“I’ll keep them warm,” Kelly told her, “while you give Kent his sponge bath.”
Several weeks earlier Kent Arrive had fallen off the roof of his house while fixing a gutter. It was one of those silly home accidents, where he’d managed to injure himself while doing something he’d done dozens of times before.
But this time had more than made up for all the times he hadn’t injured himself. He’d broken both legs and both arms, one of his feet, and four fingers.
To add injury to injury, his wife, who had only one arm, broke three of her fingers trying to grab him as he hit the ground. So now her only arm had three splinted fingers at the end of it.
While Kent was expected to fully recover, the time between getting home from the hospital and that recovery promised to be a royal bitch.
Kelly Arrive had missed several days of work when he’d had a surgery to repair his left arm and right leg, and several more when he’d been discharged and brought back to the house.
Furthermore with her only arm now limited in its use, taking care of Kent would be an even bigger challenge.
They had a hospital bed delivered and installed in the downstairs living room, and Kent made himself as comfortable as he possibly could in his new makeshift bedroom.
Kelly worked from home, and got back to it, creating a comfortable routine of helping Kent to the toilet first thing in the morning, cleaning him up afterwards, holding a jug for his urination needs throughout the day, and bringing him food and pain pills.
Even with limited use of the only arm she had she’d done a decent job of keeping him fairly comfortable and clean.
Their neighbor had even gotten them a voice activated remote control for the television, which was in constant use.
After the first several days Kelly was rereading through their insurance paperwork, and realized they qualified for a home caregiver to visit five afternoons a week.
On the weekends their grown children could visit and help, so a visiting home health aide on weeknights would be a godsend.
Kent really didn’t look forward to the visits at first, but Kelly was delighted to have help on those afternoons with his bathroom, washing, and eating needs.
Chloe came the first evening to introduce herself, and both Kent and Kelly liked her immediately. She was a petite blonde, with a pleasing figure and a great sense of humor.
Chloe liked them both as well.
They were significantly older than her, but Kelly had kept her figure, and was as beautiful now as she’d been thirty years ago when Kent first met her. The only indication that she was over fifty were the few gray hairs that she sported.
Kent was still in great shape, and except for the casts on his arms and legs looked like an athlete.