A little bit of trust.

I left off describing some of the clients that I worked with. Those three were living at the apartment. Then there were two who lived at the house that I worked at.
One of them, I'll call her Marcy. She was short, with curly hair. She wore thick glasses and need braces to walk. But she didn't like wearing them. When she refused to wear them, we had to watch her carefully to make sure she didn't fall down. Marcy was extremely smart. My boss told me that when she started working, Marcy was the one who told her about a lot of the routines and the people that had worked there before. Marcy could also be quite malipulative and also depressed at times.
The other one was almost completely paralyzed. When she was sixteen, she had been riding a horse, fallen off, and had been paralyzed. She could not speak and she was in a wheel chair. We'll call her Tara. She was also extremely smart. She loved to joke and when she laughed, her mouth would curve up into a smile, her eyes would close, and she would belt out a laugh. It was amazing. She was completely dependent on us.
One of my worst experiences at this house happened after only two weeks. I was called in a little early to go to the house in the morning, instead of the apartment. The normal morning staff had to take Tara to a doctor's appointment, so I would be at the house with just Marcy for a few hours. Which was fine. I figured she would eat breakfast, take her meds, and we could watch TV. But it wasn't going to be that easy. When I got there, the other staff member told me that Marcy was still asleep and didn't want to get up. After they left, I tried talking to Marcy. She refused to get up.
About an hour went by and she needed to take her meds. Finally, she got up and made herself some cereal. Marcy was very independent in taking her meds. I had seen her do in many times. So I let her do it. Then she went back into her room. Another hour went by and she came out and told me that she had a stomach ache. After asking her what exactly was wrong, she told me that she had taken too many meds. I think I kind of freaked out. I got out the meds and saw that she had taken not only that morning's meds, but also the next morning's. I made a ton of calls to my boss, a doctor, a nurse, and a pharmacist. I filled out a lot of paperwork. And I didn't talk to Marcy the whole time.
I found out later that Marcy was known for testing new staff. That was her test for me. And I must have passed because after that, she apologized and never tried to pull anything when I was there again. It also taught me that no matter how independent someone is, it is always smart to double check because, especially in Marcy's case, you never know what someone will try. Especially someone who's brain works a little bit different.
That last week that I worked at that house, almost a month later, a new girl came into the house. She was tiny. Not even one hundred pounds. She has bright orange hair and tons of freckles. She wore glasses and was eighteen years old and attended an alternative school. She was epilieptic and prone to violence. I only worked with her for a week, but in that week she seemed just like any other high school girl.
Every single one of the ladies that I worked with at this company made an impression on me. I learned a lot from every single one. They didn't try to judge me or pretend to be something other than what they were. They couldn't hide anything from me because I knew every single thing about them and their history and their problems. I knew how they grew up and what medication they were on and why. And they trusted me to take care of them and to help them live. And I trusted them in one way or anther.