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By Lou Powsner
Brooklyn Daily
I’ll never forget the words of my late wife that Thanksgiving morning as she served breakfast and told me her holiday game plan.
“Today we’ll have a late breakfast. It’s a holiday. I’ll let you take a lunch sandwich to your store. Then promise me you will close the store early and we will meet for an early dinner out.”
But it wasn’t to be.
Promptly, Irene served me brunch before heading upstairs to do her daily cleaning. She came down to do the dishes. Everything was normal as she carried the vacuum upstairs to our bedroom.
But I’ll never forget the sound of Irene’s falling, the wires and the vacuum following her. The piercing screams of my falling wife crashing eight feet below to the stair’s landing.
Hell had no more furious yell as she screamed her pain to god above. She would not let me lift her or touch her. I dialed our Dr. Murray Jonas, once our daughter’s neighborhood friend. He said he would meet us on Kings Highway at Beth Israel Hospital. After two days and two nights there was only one person who could quell her pain. It was her night nurse, Eileen Williams.
It was recommended that Irene be transferred to Sheepshead Rehabilitation Center on Knapp Street after she spent 48 hours in the hospital. She was transferred there along with Eileen where she stayed for three months.
Irene’s first days in the center were filled with fear and pain until the rehabilitation staff, headed by a wonderful physical therapist, helped her to gradually get back on her feet as the pain began to subside.
He had been educated in Africa and practiced here in Brooklyn. This gentleman is currently no longer at Sheepshead Bay Rehabilitation Center, but is rather at one of New York City’s major Madison Avenue hospitals.
Unfortunately, Irene is too many years dearly departed. But the skills of this man remain despite his move to Manhattan. My recent stay at Sheepshead Bay Rehabilitation Center restored my own disabilities and physical confidence. Sheepshead, through its capable staff and many disciples is a caring facility. They offer rehabilitation under astute skilled direction and it remains a treasure in southern Brooklyn.
Lou Powsner — America's Columnist — appears twice a month on BrooklynDaily.com.