My soft spot for grumpy old men

I had a really cute experience this morning at volunteering. My favorite part of my time there is my interaction with the patients - which happens quite a bit at meal times. Unfortunately, I sometimes have to wake them up to feed them. I was warned that this one man in particular was not a morning person....."or an afternoon or evening person either for that matter." joked the nurse

I was cheerfully calling out his name, and trying to think of the most exciting way to tell him that I was going to help him eat yummy hospital food. He grunted a few times and shook his head, I kept perservering. Finally, he opened his eyes and growled; "Nurse - I need sleep a hell of a lot more than I need food right now. I'm not eating that crap."

I suggested a few more things and his eyes finally showed interest when I mentioned coffee. I chatted for a bit and unsuccessfully tried to get him to smile. He took a sip of coffee and it was too hot, I offered porridge and he said his dad used to force him to eat it - and he hated it. The cheese didn't taste right and he wanted to know; "how in the hell do I get out of this place!?"

I kept trying to make him comfortable, giving him sips here and there of his coffee. Trying to get him out of his morning grump. Finally, the coffee was cool enough to drink, and it was good! I joked with him; "There! Now we've found one good thing about this place!"

"Nurse, what's your name?"

"I'm actually not a nurse - I'm a volunteer. My name is Jessica."

"You're not a nurse?"

"No, I will be in a few years though."

"I'm calling the governor."

All I could think was - Oh crap. What did I do?

"I'm calling someone - I'm going to make you a nurse - cause you'd be a damn good one!"