new wife.
Heâd rolled into Shady Grove without any forewarning, without any time for Rose to prepare herself, and then heâd just broken the news that her father was sick and that she needed to let him make peace before he died, as if she owed it to both of them.
Rose thought about Rip with Victoria at his side, the way the younger woman kissed him on the cheek, the easy way her thick hair danced in the breeze, her deep summer tan, even though it was well before tanning season, her long legs, her narrow waist.
Rose felt the knot tighten inside her chest as she remembered the likes and the looks of Victoria Griffith and the fact that Rip had decided to make it part of his business and part of his honeymoon to stop by the campground in West Memphis and counsel his ex-wife about his ex-father-in-law.
âHe had no right,â she said aloud to herself, and began to see the act as completely selfish on Ripâs part. She began thinking about the nerve heâd had in coming and his complete disregard for where she had arrived in her journey in her relationship with her father.
She thought he was arrogant and inappropriate for searching for her and then just dropping by to see her. She thought all of these things, feeling both vindicated and indignant, when suddenly from her perch of righteous anger, she recalled a night with her husband several years before the divorce, the night her father was admitted to the nursing home.
Captain Burns was to be released from the hospital after becoming gravely ill due to the damaged condition of his liver. He had spent more than three weeks in the intensive care unit, two more weeks that followed on a medical-surgical unit. Rose, working as a nurse in the same facility, spent a great deal of time checking on him and talking to the doctors about his prognosis, his living situation, and the best-possible scenario for him as a single person with liver disease and someone beginning to demonstrate signs of dementia or even, perhaps, Alzheimerâs.
Before his hospitalization, no one was completely sure about his mental condition. He was forgetful and there was a history of him wandering into unfamiliar places. There were also a few reports from neighbors of him acting in a disorienting or confused manner. He had even wrecked his car and started a small kitchen fire, but these were only occasional incidents.
When confronted, he seemed clear, and he certainly refused to accept that anything was wrong with him. He absolutely dismissed any notion that he was functioning at a diminished capacity. There was never a discussion with him about making any living changes.
After the hospital stay of so many weeks, however, with his physical weakness and his observed mental deficiencies, all of the medical personnel working with Captain Burns agreed that upon release from the hospital he would not be able to live alone.
Rose had spent days, weeks even, in conversations with social workers, doctors, friends, her husband, and her brother. She had tried, albeit unsuccessfully, to talk with her father. Finally, after much deliberation and a decision that she would not let him live with her, she found a place where she believed he would receive the best care. With much agonizing and trepidation, she signed the papers committing her father to a nursing home.
It had been an extremely difficult time for her. Without her brotherâs input or assistance, she was forced to make the decision by herself, and when her father discovered that it was she who had committed him, he was enraged.
He was so upset with her, in fact, that the day he was to be transferred to the long-term-care facility, he had to be placed in restraints. He had made it very clear not only that he was not going to go to the nursing home without a fight and would escape if taken there but that he was also going to kill the person who had signed the papers admitting him.
When her father, heavily sedated, was taken by
Heâd rolled into Shady Grove without any forewarning, without any time for Rose to prepare herself, and then heâd just broken the news that her father was sick and that she needed to let him make peace before he died, as if she owed it to both of them.
Rose thought about Rip with Victoria at his side, the way the younger woman kissed him on the cheek, the easy way her thick hair danced in the breeze, her deep summer tan, even though it was well before tanning season, her long legs, her narrow waist.
Rose felt the knot tighten inside her chest as she remembered the likes and the looks of Victoria Griffith and the fact that Rip had decided to make it part of his business and part of his honeymoon to stop by the campground in West Memphis and counsel his ex-wife about his ex-father-in-law.
âHe had no right,â she said aloud to herself, and began to see the act as completely selfish on Ripâs part. She began thinking about the nerve heâd had in coming and his complete disregard for where she had arrived in her journey in her relationship with her father.
She thought he was arrogant and inappropriate for searching for her and then just dropping by to see her. She thought all of these things, feeling both vindicated and indignant, when suddenly from her perch of righteous anger, she recalled a night with her husband several years before the divorce, the night her father was admitted to the nursing home.
Captain Burns was to be released from the hospital after becoming gravely ill due to the damaged condition of his liver. He had spent more than three weeks in the intensive care unit, two more weeks that followed on a medical-surgical unit. Rose, working as a nurse in the same facility, spent a great deal of time checking on him and talking to the doctors about his prognosis, his living situation, and the best-possible scenario for him as a single person with liver disease and someone beginning to demonstrate signs of dementia or even, perhaps, Alzheimerâs.
Before his hospitalization, no one was completely sure about his mental condition. He was forgetful and there was a history of him wandering into unfamiliar places. There were also a few reports from neighbors of him acting in a disorienting or confused manner. He had even wrecked his car and started a small kitchen fire, but these were only occasional incidents.
When confronted, he seemed clear, and he certainly refused to accept that anything was wrong with him. He absolutely dismissed any notion that he was functioning at a diminished capacity. There was never a discussion with him about making any living changes.
After the hospital stay of so many weeks, however, with his physical weakness and his observed mental deficiencies, all of the medical personnel working with Captain Burns agreed that upon release from the hospital he would not be able to live alone.
Rose had spent days, weeks even, in conversations with social workers, doctors, friends, her husband, and her brother. She had tried, albeit unsuccessfully, to talk with her father. Finally, after much deliberation and a decision that she would not let him live with her, she found a place where she believed he would receive the best care. With much agonizing and trepidation, she signed the papers committing her father to a nursing home.
It had been an extremely difficult time for her. Without her brotherâs input or assistance, she was forced to make the decision by herself, and when her father discovered that it was she who had committed him, he was enraged.
He was so upset with her, in fact, that the day he was to be transferred to the long-term-care facility, he had to be placed in restraints. He had made it very clear not only that he was not going to go to the nursing home without a fight and would escape if taken there but that he was also going to kill the person who had signed the papers admitting him.
When her father, heavily sedated, was taken by
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