Reality Check 5

"It is six am and time to go jogging," said Myrtle to herself. She was a large, highly energetic woman, in spite of her advancing age. She quickly got into her jogging suit and put on her runners. They did not have any shoe laces to tie. She did not like shoe laces as the cut off the circulation in her feet.

Myrtle headed for the woman's washroom, several doors down from where she lived in the retirement home.

"Thank God for my castle," she said, as she splashed her face with water. "I have the freedom to do anything I want here and no one to beat me up."

She smiled, thinking about being destitute and homeless after her husband went into bankruptcy and disappeared. "Well, almost anything."

There was no one around, so she quickly grabbed a peppermint from the white bowl sitting on the front desk, as she went by.

"I have diabetes, so I cannot have sugar, but when I go jogging, my blood sugar drops. I hope no one thinks that I am stealing them. Besides that, the health nurse told me it was a good idea and that there would be no problem, but the new girls around here for the summer don't like it when I do that."

Myrtle headed out the door, just as the health nurse was driving into the parking lot and waved, as she jogged past her.

"Dear old Myrtle," she thought to herself. "She is one spunky lady to say the least, and as regular as clockwork. I could set my watch by her."

"At exactly seven o'clock, I need my breakfast!" Myrtle had insisted to the matron in charge of the dining room. "Exactly seven o'clock and not one minute later!"

"Or what?" wondered the gray haired matron who tended to be tardy, at times. "Is this a threat? In this place, I need eyes in the back of my head, as I never know what is going to happen next. Myrtle was a transient, so we cannot throw her out even if she gets rowdy. I guess I could always call the cops and have her put in jail."

It was residents like Myrtle that made her job difficult.

"Oh, well! I am going to retire soon."

In the meantime, Myrtle's world was anything but a threat to anyone, but she had strict rules that she adhered to by the letter.
Having been in and out of the hospital many times because she was a brittle diabetic, she knew better than to relax the rules.

In Myrtle's reality, now the most important aspect of life was her health and enjoyment of life. For far too many years, her fun had been curtailed by a violent alcoholic, who continually beat her up every time he got drunk, which was at least once a week.

When he went into bankruptcy and left for good, it was a good thing, except that she became homeless when the mortgage company took everything they owned.

"How is Myrtle doing?" The health nurse asked the matron, who arrived several minutes before seven o'clock.

"She is late again," thought the health nurse.  "Myrtle is always so punctual."

Myrtle walked through the front door, just as the matron opened the dining room door.

"She is always a bit of a conundrum to me," replied the matron. "And she is a big woman too. I don't think I want to get on her wrong side."

"Maybe I should do a reality check on Myrtle," thought the health nurse. "Then I will find out what is really going on here. One thing about Myrtle is that she always tells the truth. Not so with the matron. Oh well, she will probably retire soon."