No English!

Ana was a really feisty Italian lady. The other CNAs and I often wore badges of courage (scratches and digs) when we emerged from her room after completing her care. It always took at least two of us to get through the ordeal. She professed to speak very little English, and until the night in question, I believed this to be true.

On the night I am speaking of, I had been mandated to work the three to eleven shift after having already put in my own day shift, due to staff shortages. As luck would have it, it was up to me to get Ana ready for bed, and there was no other CNA to help.

I had struggled for the better part of an hour with her, with no success. Finally, I just sat down on her bed and tried to come up with something to say to her that she would understand. I pointed to her wedding ring, and said, "Have you been married a long time?", not knowing if she would understand. She nodded and said, "Long time." and was quiet for a moment before she spoke again. Then she looked over at me and said, "You married?" I told her that I had been married for almost twenty years. She nodded at me again, and said, "A moment in time!"

I can't begin to tell you about the thoughts that were running through my head at that moment. When I laughed and told her what a foxy lady she had been, leading us to believe that she didn't understand what we were saying, she laughed right along with me, and commented that if we were gullible enough to believe it, we'd gotten what we deserved.

If I was surpised, so were all the other staff members on the unit. I'm not going to lie, and say that from then on things were wonderful when we went in to do her care. They weren't. But after that day, she knew we had her number, and didn't try to use the language barrier as an excuse to misbehave. And, regardless of her behavior, most of the CNAs on the unit came to respect her feistiness. She fought her illness right through to the very end, refusing to give in. I just know that somewhere, up in heaven, Ana is stirring things up.

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