Forum 4 week 4: The profile story

I work at the Lebanon veterans home, and I have gotten the chance to meet so many outstanding people. Manyof the residents have these amazing stories embedded into who they are. One residents story really stands out to me though, and I am going to do my profile on him. His name is Wilmar and he is suffering from some dementia but remembers vivid aspects about his time serving as an infantryman in Korea.
Everyday when I see Wilmar he is smiling. I walk in and he immediately greets me with his usual, “hello Irene,” or, “How are you Irene?” I kind of shrugged off him calling me Irene for a few weeks but then my curiosity overtook me and I began to ask him questions about why he was so fond of the name Irene. He told me that when he was in Korea in the 50’s, they always listened to “goodnight Irene” by Gordon Jenkins & The Weavers.

Wilmar told me that before he went to Korea during the war, he asked his wife to marry him and she said no. She said that she wouldn’t marry him yet, but she tied a ribbon around her neck and told him that she wouldn’t take it off until he came home. I am convinced that WIlmar was reminded of his wife-to-be by that song and that’s why it is so fresh in his mind all the time. By the way, she wasn’t lying. They got married when he came back, and they had four children.

Wilmar spends most of his time listening to music and laying in his bed but his eyes are full of life.

I am going to focus on asking more questions about his experience in Korea, his biggest accomplishments after the war, and his wife.