I am Beda, a personal care taker to Ramsey
I am Beda, a personal care taker to Ramsey. I wrote a little bit about him, my experience with him.
An agency (AHRC) called me June of 2015 and they had hand picked me to work for an important man in his house to help with his daughter who is mentally disable. On July 6th, 2015 I went there for an interview with Dr. Levy, Lois, my supervisor and the important man. I was the first one to arrive at the apartment and a man greeted me. He said, “Hello” and offer me a cup of coffee? I said no thank you because I had already had breakfast.
During the meeting, I saw terror in his eyes that I may not love his daughter or try kidnap her. Who knows what was going on in his head. I got up from a chair and went down on my two knees in front of him and held his hands and said, “Look sir, I did not come here inexperience or from across the street. I am here legally flying over twenty hours across the Pacific Ocean. Then he gave me a big smile and told me to call him “Ramzi”. I started to work on the same day.
I came home happy and started to Google “Ramzi”. “Ramzi” did not come out as I searched. On July 7th. I went back to work again and saw an envelop on a pile of books. Ramsey Clark 37 W. 12th Street Apt. 2B New York, New York 10011. I now know his real name and spelling. We both liked each other right way.
His daughter, Ronda is very sweet, She does not hear or speak. I took a sign language class just to make easy to communicate with her. Ronda is very fluent in sign language. I learned a lot from her as well. She sits at her desk in a chair and scribbles all day long. She can read simple sentences. Ramsey used to call her DD or sweetie pie. I took care of Ronda for about two years.
Around November 2017, Ramsey fell down and broke his hip. After six weeks of rehabilitation, Ramsey came home. According to Ramsey’s physician he needed twenty-four care. I was hired privately to look after him. I always feel that he was part of our family. He even visited my house during one of our festivals. My family adore him. I always looked forward to going to work after the long weekends because he talked about very wise subjects. I became a much better person because of him.
My very curiosity to learn much about America. I used to ask him questions everyday. I did not take a lot of vacations. Even if I took a vacation here and there, I had to prepared him a week before that I was going away. He used to called me on the phone when I was away and ask, “When are you coming back sweetheart”? One time there was a conflict between the staff. We did not get along very well. I decided to leave with compensation. The day before I left for good, I decided to tell Ramsey. I said Ramsey, “Tomorrow is my last day to be here”. He said, “What do you mean?”. I said, “I don’t want to be here in this stressful situation”. He turned around and picked up the phone and dial Cheryl. Ramsey said to Cheryl, “No body will be coming here besides Beda. Beda has to be here. Who make this decision?”. I went on a three week vacation anyway. I missed him terribly when I was away. I tried to call him as much as I could.
In 2020 (COVID-19), I was away in California and stuck there because of the lockdown. Ramsey was worried about me and called me everyday asking, “Are you OK? When are you coming back?”. My answer was when the lockdown is over. Ramsey was always worried about others. He never worried about himself and never complain. He was always giving without expecting anything back. He was a gift from God.
There are handful of people who he used to talk about every single day such as Bobby Kennedy, Jack Kennedy, Muhammad Ali, his wife Georgia and last but not least his daughter Ronda Kathleen Clark (Sweetie Pie).
Ramsey Clark could live on cookies and black coffee basically. He used to say, “I never say NO to cookies”. He had a good diet. Even at the age of ninety three, he used to eat like a young man. Ramsey had no medications except one small heart, that was after he fell down at the age of ninety.
Ramsey never say no to visitors such as interviews, chit chats and some times neighbors would stop by just to say, “Hi and hello”. His old friend and colleague, Abdeen M. Jabara visited him almost every week. He used to brings bags of goodies for him. Ramsey called him ” Santa Clause”. Abdeen loved Ramsey to his death. Every single year for six years Abdeen bought a Christmas Tree for Ramsey. In one of those year the Cristmas Tree disappeared. When I came in Monday morning, the living room Christmas was gone. First and foremost I called Abdeen. Abdeen was on his way to airport to go to Michigan. He asked me to tell Cheryl. I did call Cheryl and told her what had happened. Cheryl said, ” Don’t worry, it will be there tomorrow”. Ramsey woken up late that day around noon. He asked me, “Where is the Christmas Tree?”. At about three o’clock we usually take a walk outdoors or we go downstairs to check the mail. Ramsey asked the doorman William, “do you know anything about my Christmas Tree?”. William paged the whole building and asked if anybody saw if the Christmas tree had been disposed of! Thereafter, William viewed the elevator camera video in front of Ramsey. Guess what! The tree was dragged in a black plastic bag to the basement and hidden in one of the Ramsey’s storage cabinets. The person who used to sleep over night to look after Ramsey seemed did not care. I still ask the question, “WHY”. Ramsey and I carried the tree and back in the original place and fixed it up. Problem solved. I asked the question, “Why?” for a couple of months but unfortunately no answer. I let it go and moved on.
To be continued… .
Thanks
Beda Acharya
