Emergency

The fire alarm went off twice in the middle off the night last night. That is rather frightening, since all that all I can do is lie in bed and wait it out -I can't get out of bed by myself. Well, I thought, at least I'll maybe get to be carried to safety by some yummy hunky firemen ! The alarm makes a aloud alarm noise followed by the recorded voice of a woman announcing loudly and clearly and slowly, "Attention residents. A fire emergency has been reported In the building. Please proceed to the nearest exit stairway and exit the building. Do not take elevator." So I'm just laying there waiting, when, WHAM!!! I hear the front entry door of my unit crash open. Thinking hopefully that it might be one of the one of the Emeritus staff come to usher me to safety, I yell, "Hello? Hello? Is anyone there?"

And a demented (literally), frantic, confused ancient woman barrels into my room and frantically runs to the window!

I huddled deep into my bed and tried to become invisible.

Luckily, one of the staff saw her and followed her in. It was Verna, the one who speaks such broken English that I can't understand hr at all. She said, "'oh, Graf ish beetf, Mrs. Gcdxk. Nfgvs mgr,Miss Debbie. Jeqgdtibkgf ndrtbdx.".

The woman protested, "They said to go to the nearest exit. That was the nearest exit!"

Verna took her away, and all was well.

It was a false alarm, thank God. It revealed total lack of preparation on the part of the staff. I understand that poor, I'll-trained Gretchen was up on the 3rd floor trying to maneuver bed-bound people into wheelchairs by herself.