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Susie Bonds
Hi Everyone,
There have been a few requests about information regarding Paula Ray, so I thought I would share what I know.
The last time I saw Paula was the weekend of the 2011 Garage Band Woodstock. She is living in the DRI facility in Abilene, making incredibly wonderful tasty Billy Bean Salsa, pickled jalopeno relishes and quail eggs, soaps and much more. Paula's car wreck caused severe short term memory damage, but she remembers quite a bit from her high school years. Her mother and my father lived on Windsor and sometimes Paula would have short stays with her mother. When I was in Abilene, I would visit her at both the facility and her mother's house.
A very fun story that I will never forget is about the year we were turning fifty. I was in Abilene during the holidays and she was at her mother's house. I picked Paula up and we drove around Abilene. While driving, we started singing carols. Once I realized she remembered the words to carols, I started singing songs from our high school years. Precious Paula chimed right in and remembered the words better than me. Although short term memory is a problem, along with various other medical problems, Paula still retains her old high school humor and sarcasm. After singing and laughing for half an hour or so, I made the statement "Paula, do you realize our birthdays are coming up and we can be classified as antiques?" She looked at me with that wonderful Paula look, cocked her head in my direction, raised an eyebrow and said "Susie, we're going to be fine antiques!" Three to five minutes later, she didn't remember the conversation. She also doesn't remember the wreck, but knows about it and curses it for her predicament.
Paula's physical health has deteriorated in the past few years and the facility insists she use a walker. She absolutely does not like the walker. We were sitting at a table and about to visit the store that holds the facility's products. She stood up, looked to see if staff was watching, pushed the walker out of the way, put her finger to her lips and said "shhhhh." She's still a hoot, just as she was in high school.
When Mary Ruth (her mother) died, I called the facility to see how Paula accepted the news. They told me she smiled, nodded her head and said "Good. Now Momma and Daddy can be together."
Last summer was the first time for me to visit Abilene since 2005 (the year my father died), so it had been a while since I'd seen Paula. As ususal, she had to be introduced to me, but once she knew it was me, she remembered my name throughout our visit. She would repeat our conversations continually, but she was able to remember she was talking to me. I'd not seen that in my past visits.
In March, I will once again go to visit her. If anyone would like to go with me, I think that would be great and I'd be happy to call the facility and ask if she would be up for a group gathering. Like I said, she and other residents make absolutely yummy things, so if we were to all buy products, we'd definitely be supporting Paula.
Hugs to all,
Susie
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