Saintly Behavior Witnessed in Seattle

Visit lifts spirits

Sixty-one-year-old Mansell David Myers was recently seen catching a cab to the Seattle airport after a whirlwind weekend visit with Reva, his mother. Reva lives at Gaffney House, a dementia-specific assisted living
arrangement that is much more architecturally akin to a frat house on
fraternity row than an assisted living “facility.” The Myers family reported that Mansell demonstrated saint-like behavior throughout the weekend.

Mansell, known to his family as David, is a resident of Cottonwood, Arizona, near Sedona, and the largest town in the Verde Valley (yes, it’s green). Known as a very easy-going guy, David showed what can only be referred to as saint-like qualities when he spent significant amounts of time with Reva over the past weekend, including an overnight stay at Gaffney House.

It all began soon after David and his sister, Sara, arrived at Gaffney House. When David first approached Reva and bent down to kiss her cheek, she was literally stunned, as if she were trying to make sense of what she was seeing and hearing. She was speechless.

While David visited with Reva, Sara raided Trader Joe’s to buy a “knosh” to share. Food purchased, David, Reva, and Sara sat in the dining room at Gaffney to eat. Reva continued to be mostly unresponsive. Without hesitation, David began helping Reva to eat, quickly evolving into David feeding Reva. Sara reported telling herself that she probably couldn’t bring herself to feed Mom, and she thought it was pretty impressive that her brother seemed so calm in doing so. Sara left soon thereafter to catch a ferryboat back to her home on Bainbridge. David stayed at Gaffney.

The following day, when David met Sara at her office in Seattle, he told her of the “bizarre” night. As David described it, Reva somehow managed to wrinkle down to the foot of her bed and fall off into a heap between the wall and the bed. Because Reva is largely nonverbal, she was unable to immediately awaken David, sleeping in bed nearby. Fortunately, it did not take long for David to hear soft tones and physical movements and to discover Reva and her predicament.

David decided that it was best to have “the professionals” help up Reva. He pulled the emergency cord next to the bed and the one outside of the room in the hall. About 10 minutes passed. Eventually, staff arrived and moved Rev back to bed. The night resumed without incident.

Early in that weekend’s visit, David was seen purchasing tag board from the local paper vendor. Turns out, he had brought pictures from home of his wife, Becky, her garden, and the family pets. He used the tag board to create a large display of the pictures and left the display of pictures carefully situated on Reva’s dresser.

David went back for another short visit before his return to Arizona. Sara visited with Reva soon after David left. According to Sara, Reva was more animated and verbal than she had been in a while. The saint-like behavior seemed to have a healing effect on Reva.

David’s weekend visit was brief, but everyone involved reported a sort of spiritual lift.

By Sara Myers
A Good Enough Daughter Blog