The New Social Worker Vol. 19, No. 4, Fall 2012 | Page 16

Evidence of Time Machines
by Rich Kenney, MSSW
families with end-of-life issues and care, I help them
to return to the past.
While physicists look
for ways to apply the
possibilities of quantum
mechanics and symmetric
polygon arrangements, I
explore the realities of the
powers of old paintbrushes and Klingon warrior
swords. These are some
of the time travel tools
I use in life review, the
process of looking back
to the past with the goal
of bringing new meaning and perspective into
the present. It provides
hospice patients with
opportunities to recount
and re-evaluate their life
stories.

A Bag of Cotton

ho needs wormholes or cosmic
strings when you have a slide
trombone and a bag of cotton?

Postulates of special relativity and
concepts of the Alcubierre drive are
beyond my comprehension. They fall
within the realm of physics and, like
wormholes and cosmic strings, are
related to theories pertaining to time
travel. I am not a physicist; I am a social
worker. What I do know, however, is
that time travel is not just for scientists.
Hospice social workers can dabble in
time machines, too. At least, I do.

For the past few years, I have been
working with hospice patients in Oklahoma. Hospice is an option for people
when their life-limiting illnesses no longer respond to cure-oriented treatments.
In addition to assisting patients and their

“There’s an animal in
Gloretha’s house and it’s
not hers.”
That was the part of
the nurse’s telephone
message I kept thinking about while
driving to Muskogee from Tulsa to see
Gloretha, a petite, ninety-one-year-old
woman with emphysema. In reading her
chart earlier that day, I learned that she
lived alone in a “cluttered and unclean
abode.” Another report noted that,
despite her breathing difficulties, she was
“feisty and frank.”

When I sat on Gloretha’s worn
couch after giving her my business card,
dust quickly filled the room.

“I don’t want no prayers or bedpans,” she said. “I want to live my last
days. I want to smoke Pall Malls at the
casino.”

“Casino?” I asked.

“Slots at the Hard Rock every Friday,” she said. “Cab takes me.”

Pots and pans rattled down the hallway.

“That cat again,” she said, sensing
my surprise. “He come up from the hole
under my sink. Follow me.”

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