Good morning and Happy Valentines Day to everyone. In a place of darkness, my goal today is make someone’s day more joyful than what it was before they saw me.
It was just that as I rolled off my bunk, made my bed, and stepped out of my cubicle of a room. I look out to the main door of the Glasshouse and the first person I see is Mr. Readon.
Me: “What are you doing here?!?!?”
Him: “Eddie, there you are, I have been looking for you everywhere!”
Me: “What do you mean everywhere, what time did you come in last night”
Him: “We got here in the afternoon but were brought into the dorm at 3am”
Me: “Were you in the downtown building this whole time? I left there almost two years ago.”
Him: “No, I left a month after you and was taken to Atlanta until now. It is so good to see you, what room are you in?”
Me: “Oh wow, what a coincidence, and it looks like you are in the room right next to me.”
Him: “You have no idea, I have learned so much since you would help me back then. Now I won’t be bothering you for every little thing.”
Me: “You know it doesn’t bother me. What do you have going on for today that I can help with, did you get your uniforms?”
Him: “Yes I got my uniforms. I need to go to medical on the next move and commissary”
Me: “Okay, as soon as they call the move I will go with you and show you around.”
Him: “Man Eddie, you are still here helping everyone”
Mr. Readon is an elderly man, has several medical conditions, walks with the help of his cane, and at the moment does not have his dentures with him. I feel like I have several grandfathers here, and I am glad to take them all under my wing.
As I leave the Glasshouse, I see that Case Manager Kost has his door opened, so I head up to him to say hello.
Me: I knock on his door, peak in and say “Good morning, how are you?”
Kost: “Doing good, what’s going on, everything okay?”
Me: “Yes sir, just passing by.”
Kost: “Can you bring me Ballester-Ramos? I need him to fill this form out.”
Me: “Are you able to give it to me so I can help him fill it out and bring it back to you?”
Kost: “Yes, perfect, thank you”.
I take the form with me and find Bon-Bon, and fill it out for him. They just called the move, so I jog back up the stairs to return the form to Kost and run back down to meet with Mr. Readon and head to medical. Once there, we notice the department is full, and we decide to go to commissary first, so I take the stroll with him around the lake over to commissary. Shortly after, they call his name, and we get all the items he requested, then I carry the bag of commissary for him as we walk back towards medical, and I sit to wait for him.
Over the officer’s radio I hear them calling our unit for chow. I step in to look for Mr. Readon and ask the nurse if he is finished because they called for lunch and we head out.
Me: “Start walking towards the dining room, I will take your medications and commissary to your room, and I need to get the “little old guy” I push in the wheelchair. We’ll catch up.”
Him: “Okay, thank you Eddie.”
I hurry over to the unit, drop off Mr. Readon’s things on his bed in his room, and go get Mr. Rivero’s wheelchair as he was patiently standing there with his arms crossed waiting for me, like a person waiting for their car as the valet parking driver brings the car around. “Vamos, let’s go”, I tell him, and we head out towards the dining room, and most definitely we caught up with Mr. Readon. Today was grab-and-go lunch trays, and we brought our food back to the units.
Finished eating, a serve myself a “cafecito”, and wait for the midday move so I can head to the chapel and prepare for the afternoon services. At almost 2pm, I notice the guys from my unit are all walking towards the laundry area. It seems they are going to pick up their uniform replacements, since they were all taken from us during the last shakedown. I notice my roommate in the line of people looking over at the chapel to see if I am visible and waves me down. I notify the two religious groups, so they know and could make sure they go get their uniforms. Once I get there, I find out they do not have my bag of uniforms, but I did notice they still had Mr. Gibson’s bag of clothes, but no Mr. Gibson anywhere around us, so I ask if I could sign for his bag, and offer to take it back to the dorm with me for him. I leave the guys my information so they could go back to the laundry department and get my set of uniforms for me, and I head to the unit to drop off Mr. Gibson’s bag. As I get closer to the unit, Mr. Gibson comes walking out with a worried, just woke up, look on his face. It’s things like this I don’t understand. Did no one see Mr. Gibson sleeping and notify him, being everyone in the Glasshouse knows the conditions Mr. Gibson is in?
“Mr. Gibson, I have your bag”, I tell him as he gets closer to me”.
“What? That’s my bag of clothes? Where is yours? He responds.
“They didn’t have mine ready, they were about to leave, and I saw your bag so I got it for you.” I told him.
“Eddie, you never fail me. Thank you so much. Really, thank you.” He says to me.
“Anything for you Mr. Gibson, no worries.” I tell him as we walk back into the unit.
The officer in out unit begins walking around letting everyone know to be ready because they will be calling for us to go pick up our dinner tray. This throws us off course, we never grab dinner before 4pm count. But they call it anyway and once again, Mr. Rivero is in his wheelchair and we are on our way to the dining room. Two small round slices of turkey, bread, one mayonnaise pack and mustard pack, plus a bag of chips, is what we were provided for dinner today. Back in the unit, we prepare for the 4pm count.
Count clears, and the water fountain is now leaking water. Two guys begin trying to fix the problem, and I head upstairs to grab the mop and bucket to clean up the water. Now time to get ready for the move, so I can get to the chapel and have things ready for the evening Jewish services. Today they lit the candles nearly at 6pm so we stayed through to 7pm and I headed back to the unit, where I took a shower, prepared myself a quick meal, and came over to type my journal for the day.
Tomorrow, like every Saturday, I will be up early for the morning Shabbat services in the chapel, so tonight will be an early night so I can wake up rested. Thank you Father God for today and for an excellent week. Thank you Lord for guiding me daily, in every move I make and keeping me strong, mentally and physically. Thank you God for my family, friends and loved ones. Amen.
Eduardo Luis Valdes
02499-506
February 14, 2025
22:57
