Assisted Living and the Elderly
June 4th 2009 05:09
A year ago, after my father past away, my mother was trying to get through her grieving for him when she started having medical problems and her diabetes was causing her great problems. Finally, she had to have part of her right leg amputated. Then my sister passed away and she was the baby of the family. So my mother had to deal with a lot. My brother lived with my mother, and my sister and her husband live down the road from them. After all this happened, my sister and brother did not want to deal with my mother. In fact, their exacts words were, they will not tie up their days for her. This really made me angry, how could they treat her like that. Well, I flew up there to check out my mother, because I was getting conflicting news about her from my brother and sister. They said she would not do anything. Anyway, once I arrived, I drove to the assisted living center where she lived and it was a beautiful place, and the people there were very sweet. I was so glad to see my mother and was so amazed how much she could do on her own, but she was depressed, lonely and frustrated. She did not belong in that place no matter how beautiful and good the people were to her. She was not with family and that is who she needs to be with. My mother lives with me now, and she is very happy and that is the way it should be.
I realized, while I was at the assisted living center, that no matter how good the place is, if there isn't any family contact everyday, that the elderly actually start giving up. All their life they have been with family, raised children, and then when they grow old and there are changes, the family seems to forget about them when they are sent away to nursing homes. The elderly become depressed, lonely, and basically give up. This was happening to my mother. I could not let that happen. I promised her she would never be sent to one of those places ever again.
There is always some type of home help that is available and my mother deserves to be happy. She had lived her life raising us and loving us. She does not deserve to be thrown away and never thought of until it is convenient for the family. One day we are all going to grow old.
I realized, while I was at the assisted living center, that no matter how good the place is, if there isn't any family contact everyday, that the elderly actually start giving up. All their life they have been with family, raised children, and then when they grow old and there are changes, the family seems to forget about them when they are sent away to nursing homes. The elderly become depressed, lonely, and basically give up. This was happening to my mother. I could not let that happen. I promised her she would never be sent to one of those places ever again.
There is always some type of home help that is available and my mother deserves to be happy. She had lived her life raising us and loving us. She does not deserve to be thrown away and never thought of until it is convenient for the family. One day we are all going to grow old.
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