Page 21 of X-Ray in the Xanth (Lovely Lethal Gardens Rewind #3)

Doreen groaned as she realized that everybody else was off doing something, and she was not. Frustrated, she went back to her laptop and started looking for Eli. Any Eli. Getting creative with her search, she then started looking for institutions where somebody named Eli may have resided.

Not finding anything or even what that particular service would be called, she wondered who she could ask.

Almost immediately she thought about Nan and the Rosemoor home, wondering if they took in people who had mental disabilities.

She quickly picked up the phone, not giving herself a chance to question her impulse and contacted the manager down there.

He was, as always, jovial and, in this case, happy to hear from her.

“Hey, Doreen,” he greeted her. “What can I help you with?”

She began, “Do you take inmates—residents, I mean,” she quickly corrected herself, “who have mental disabilities?”

“It depends on what the disability is and how much care they require,” he replied, “and don’t forget that everything is on a tiered system here. So, if they need a certain level of care, and it’s minimal, we could probably take them, depending on what the problem is.”

“Can you explain the process?”

“If they required a higher level of care, not only would the cost be much higher but there also could be a need for something that we can’t provide here at Rosemoor,” he explained.

“For example, if you had somebody who required more physical lifting—say, help to get to the bathroom, to the dining room, in and out of bed, those things—we would need to elevate them to a facility with a higher level of care, where they had beds with lifts and other special equipment to help people get in and out for bathing and whatnot. Now, in the case of mental disability or mental illness, it’s never quite so clear-cut.

They have to get along with people, and it has to be something that we can manage here.

” He sounded almost worried. “Doreen, are you trying to find a place for someone?”

“No, no, no,” she said. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to give that impression. To be honest, I’m working on a case.”

“Oh my,” he replied in amazement. “I don’t know how I can help with that, other than—”

“No, you’ve provided exactly what I needed,” she stated. “Is there a facility here in town that handles the more difficult situations?”

“Oh yes, of course.” He mentioned two specialized manors in town. “One is run by the government, and the other is private.”

“Right, so the private one is likely to be very expensive.”

“Yes. And, when we say, expensive , I mean very expensive.”

“Right,” she muttered. “It always ends up that way, doesn’t it?”

“Looking after someone twenty-four hours a day,” he noted, clicking his tongue, “is inherently expensive, and there’s really no way to make it easier on anybody. So a lot of people have to come together to make that doable.”

“I’m not criticizing you,” she pointed out. “I’m just really trying to figure out how this could be.”

“How what could be?”

“What it would take for somebody to live in such a home, versus one of those more specialized homes.”

“It’s ultimately all about capacity,” he added.

“The homes go through a series of tests, getting assessments done as to who we bring in as residents. We need to determine if each individual will be in a regular long-term assisted living situation, such as here at Rosemoor, or if they need to go into a skilled nursing environment or something more specialized, like memory care or other mental health scenarios,” he described.

“That’s just one of the facts of life. At this stage, the patients need the assessment in order for us to follow up on what their needs are, where they are better placed. ”

“Okay, that’s good to know,” Doreen said. “I’ll reach out to these two manors and see if they have the information I need.”

“Sure enough, glad to help.” He added, “I did hear a few murmurs about you possibly wanting to have the wedding here. I feel bad saying this, but I’m not sure that is something I can manage.”

“Oh no, that was the Rosemoor clan trying to create that opportunity,” she corrected. “Believe me that I would totally understand if you told me that it wasn’t possible.”

“I do understand that you would want to have your grandmother and a lot of other people here with you on that special day, but I’m not sure how we could manage that.”

“That’s just one of the reasons I haven’t worked too quickly to resolve these wedding issues. It’ll take some time to figure out what’ll work nicely for everyone,” she added.

“Oh good. I’m so glad you came to that awareness on your own. We all want you to have an absolutely wonderful day, but I’m just not sure that everybody can be there for it.”

“I was wondering if maybe one of the answers was not a duplicate wedding but potentially something like that,” she suggested.

“Perhaps a small reception just for everybody at Rosemoor. I was also considering doing the whole thing down at Central Park. However, by the time people started talking about the list of people who want to come,… it sounded as if I won’t have any venue big enough. ”

“You know a park wedding would be absolutely smashing,” he cried out. Then he asked, “Can you do that?”

“I have no idea,” she muttered. “And that puts me right back into that whole realm of not knowing what is possible.”

He chuckled. “The good news is, you have time.”

“Yes, I’m very appreciative of that.”

“Let us know if we can help in some way,” he said, “and we could certainly look at having a small reception for the residents here, just so that everybody feels included. Of course, depending on where you end up having the wedding ceremony, and how many people here at Rosemoor are interested and able to attend, we could also organize a small bus to bring them down. Yet some residents would require a little more care down at the park.”

“I know, and they can get into so much trouble,” she muttered.

He burst out laughing. “That is very true, but I have to admit that, since you came onboard, they’ve been so lively and far happier.

This place positively hums, and, for that, we are grateful.

There’s nothing we could possibly have done ourselves to get that kind of joyous atmosphere here.

That is literally all down to you. So we are very grateful, and, if we can do anything to help, please just let us know. ” And, on that note, he rang off.

His words left her smiling with joy in her heart to think that she was contributing in a positive way to that group of seniors. And it wasn’t just about Nan. It was the whole Sherlock club and beyond.

She’d already forgotten what they called themselves, but it just made her smile to realize how close-knit everybody had become.

If there had been problems before, they had certainly gone out the window, as everybody wanted to be involved and worked hard to be included in every one of her cases now.

It made them smile too, and that was worth every bit of the trouble involved.