Yesterday was fingerprinting day for Grandmother at the immigration office. Our appointment was at 8am near downtown, so we had to leave pretty early since we would have to fight rush hour traffic. Bless her heart, I thought Grandmother would take forever to get ready so I got her up extra early so she’d have plenty of time. She was ready in a flash so I could’ve let her sleep another 45 mins. Oh well! She was just as happy to spend that extra time napping in her Lay-Z-Boy.
Anyway, we got to the immigration office about 15 mins. early. The place didn’t open until 8am so people were lining up outside the door and I, being the person with no patience, was ready to go jump in line too. I had a 98-year old woman with me and I was NOT going to be last in line! Even though it was very cold, I contemplated wheeling Grandmother up there so we could secure our place in the line. My sensible side won over, however, and I figured that a good space in line wasn’t worth risking her getting a case of pneumonia.
Once they finally opened the doors, the line actually moved very quickly. People were there for different reasons so they were directed to different areas for processing. I wheeled Grandmother up there just as the line was dwindling at the door and the officer let us right in. After filling out our preliminary paperwork and waiting for a few minutes, we were called back to the fingerprinting area. The guy doing the fingerprints was super nice and took his time with Grandmother. She was pretty quiet but when he got to her left ring finger, she boldly told him to be careful with that finger. On that finger, she wears the now thin wedding band that my granddaddy put on her finger 76 years ago. He has since passed, but she has NEVER had that ring off of her finger since their wedding day. The fingerprinting guy was very sweet and told her how special that was that they had been married for 73 years.
Yesterday was actually a piece of cake. The nightmare part started today when I called to follow-up and was informed that Grandmother’s prints are “unclassifiable” which means they must be redone. Apparently, this happens with older people since their skin is thin and their hands are wrinkly. The procedure is that they will attempt to take the prints twice and if they are still unsuccessful the second time, they will allow her to do a sworn statement. Of course, I asked why we can’t just skip to the sworn statement part and the girl I talked to told me this is the law and they can’t change their procedure. I talked to the head of the adoption unit and she wouldn’t budge either. I asked them what they do in cases where someone is bed ridden or homebound. They had the nerve to tell me that in those cases they arrange for a caregiver to get that person to a fingerprinting place. Are you kidding me???!!! Of course, I told them that this makes no sense and is plain STUPID. Well, the person helping me was super nice and felt awful about it. I told her that I know this isn’t her fault but it’s still STUPID. She agreed but said there’s nothing she can do. So the next step is to have the prints taken all over again. At least, I know I can let Grandmother sleep a little later this time. Gotta see the glass half full you know. AAARRRGGGHHHH!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment