National Adult Literacy Database

December 12, 2005

The following story was written by Chris, from the Halifax area in Nova Scotia. Chris has been a student at the Bloomfield Literacy Program with Coordinator Laura Channon for three years.

My Perfect Job

Chris

My perfect job would be working with the elderly, helping them with things they cannot do for themselves.

I would take them to the bathroom and sit them down on the toilet and wait for them to finish using the bathroom. I would then help them back to their rooms and sit them down on their chairs. They thank me for helping them and I would say "you're welcome." Then I go to my next job. The next job is making beds for people who cannot make their own beds. Sometimes I feed them their food. Sometimes I read a book to them. They seem to enjoy my company and I theirs.

There are good and bad things about the job. Some of the people that I work with are hard to work with. I have to really use my head to think of ways to help them with their problems. Some of them need social workers to help them with their problems because they are dealing with things that I cannot deal with. Their problems tend to be anything from getting new shoes to getting a bath to proper medications, to getting counseling on social issues to help them understand their problems. Counselors can help the person with solving the problems and the people can move on in their life and feel better about themselves.

There was one person that I worked with who was very had to work with. He was constantly coming to me to solve his problems. I could not solve his problems but I tried to. He was a good person but he was a pain sometimes. Still I like to work with him even though I could not help him with his troubles. The man died on the following week and I miss him sometimes when I think of him.

I like working with elderly people because they give me a great pleasure with the things they say and do. I like the laughter that I hear in their voices that makes me laugh too. They can say funny things sometimes. That is why I like working with those people.