WEBVTT

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Warren DeWitt and Arden Peters

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live in a small town in West Virginia.

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Arden\'s children had moved far away.

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And Warren had never married.

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They were trying to cope with the demands of aging

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more or less on their own.

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Then, they met each other.

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What do you think about this guy?

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You happy you met him here?

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Oh... He\'s alright when he\'s asleep.

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And I call him my friend!

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We used to come here every morning for breakfast.

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We didn\'t know each other at the time.

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And he and Mrs. Peters

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would sit in one of those booths over there.

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And that was my booth over there in the corner.

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We never talked any.

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Until,

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Until eventually Mrs. Peters wasn\'t coming anymore.

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He came in by himself.

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Arden was 90 years old

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and he was trying to look after both himself and his wife.

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It was proving impossible.

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Maxine has Alzheimer\'s disease

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and she also has Parkinson\'s disease.

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She was starting to get bad.

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I\'d meet him at Wal-Mart and he\'d tell me about

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what all he had to do. Scrub the floor and wash the clothes.

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And to look after her and help her. And you know.

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And... So it was

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pretty stressful for him, I think, to have all that....

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on his mind.

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When she gets real sick,

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like at night, when I would I be home

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and he\'d call me and I\'d come up here he\'d just be

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crying and crying and carrying on.

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I felt so sorry for him I swear.

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Broke my heart.

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She can\'t move her arms. She can\'t turn her body.

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She can\'t do anything. They have to shove her over,

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push her over on her side and put pillows behind her

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to hold her there.

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Mama was crying,

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and she said you are making plans to put me away.

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I said oh no we\'re not.

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And when they first started here they said they

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were going to put her in a rest home and I said

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no you aren\'t going to put her in no rest home.

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The doctor did say that

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if we had someone 24 hours a day

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we would let you keep her at home.

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And I said Pap,

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why don\'t we tell him that

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Doris is going to be here during the day time

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and I\'m going to be stay with you the rest of the time.

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And see what he says about that.

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So we just turned the car around and went back

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and talked to the doctor. And we told him that

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well we had this girl working here

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8 hours a day and that I was going to be here the rest of

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the day and night, every night.

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He said, OK, if there\'s going to be someone there

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then I\'ll let you take her home.

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I don\'t think she would get this kind of care in a rest home

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as she gets here now.

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I don\'t know how she\'d ever get better care then she is getting.

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I did everything I know what to do. |

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He\'s got an awful lot of patience with her.

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Really. More than anybody else that I know would have.

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And I sorta like her a little bit.

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But I do most of the work that has to be done here.

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After all, he\'s 90 years old.

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He don\'t have much strength you know.

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He couldn\'t possibly take care of this

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if someone wasn\'t here.

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Have you thought about what you are going to do

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when she passes?

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Oh, I\'ll stay here with him.

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I wouldn\'t leave him for anything.

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No. He\'d need me more than ever then.

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Well when you get this old you

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you just don\'t look forward. You just live from day-to-day.

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But you don\'t worry. I don\'t live that way to worry.

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So, I went and brought her a grave lot.

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Went and got her tombstone put up and everything.

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Where you going after you die?

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I\'m going to heaven that\'s where I\'m going

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And I\'m positive of that.

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You and Maxine both?

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That\'s right.

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The Lord is my Shepard.

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I shall not want.

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He makes me lie down in green pastures.

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He leads me beside the still water.

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He restoreth my soul

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and guides my path in righteousness

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for his namesake.

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Surely goodness and loving kindness

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shall follow me all the days of my life.

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And I will dwell in the

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house of my Lord for ever

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and ever and ever.

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Well the last words I remember her saying was,

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she said, I love you.

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Hey Pap! Breakfast is ready.

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It\'s just like I belong here. We\'re just great friends.

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It\'s just like being in your family.

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But I want him to be around for a long time.

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And I guarantee you that I\'ll take care of him

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as long as he lives.

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We\'re going to be together for life.

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Let me shake your old dirty paw.

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Oh, Pappy, pappy, pappy. He\'s my buddy all the way.