Did you know that if you are blessed with living to the ripe-old-age of 85, you have a fifty-percent chance of getting dementia. If you ask me, those are some pretty impressive and terrifying odds! Being frail and having short-term memory puts one at high risk for placement in an adult ‘orphanage’ (a.k.a. your local nursing home).
Then again, you may never need memory care, but if you live long enough, you will probably need assistance with activities of daily living. Do you know where you will be living during your golden years? Have you had that conversation with yourself yet? Where does your heart want to come home to? No one grows up dreaming about the day they can finally live in a nursing home!
My own heart is content. I can rest peacefully at night for I've answered the question for myself. In my mind I see a spacious home with several bedrooms and a wooded back yard. I plan to experience my last adventures at home, all the while being nurtured and protected with around-the-clock affordable care.
Then again, you may never need memory care, but if you live long enough, you will probably need assistance with activities of daily living. Do you know where you will be living during your golden years? Have you had that conversation with yourself yet? Where does your heart want to come home to? No one grows up dreaming about the day they can finally live in a nursing home!
My own heart is content. I can rest peacefully at night for I've answered the question for myself. In my mind I see a spacious home with several bedrooms and a wooded back yard. I plan to experience my last adventures at home, all the while being nurtured and protected with around-the-clock affordable care.
This home is a sorority of sorts, my half-dozen sisters and I live here and we are family. It is affordable, we co-op our care in a beautiful, elegant community home. There is no sign out front, our home looks like any other home on the block. (Occassionally, visiting nurse will refer to our home as a 'facility' and has to be gently reminded that it is our home. After all, shouldn't seniors have a right to live at home when they can no longer live in their own?
This home has more freedom than an institution (for I am not a prisoner), it is more affordable than a nursing home (for neither I, nor my government have unlimited resources); it is more intimate than a long hall (for I cannot really be known if I am just one of ninety and nine (after all, my caregivers are not God Almighty!).
My heart sees a pamper-house with 'ladies-in-waiting'. My family can visit any time, day or night. My special place is more humane than a warehouse, it has lower caregiver to client ratio and higher levels of care than an institution.
Independence is encouraged in my home, but when I can no longer feed myself, or have simply lost my appetite, my caregivers encourage me - - they coddle me, playfully fuss over me. They come by later with 'just one more bite.' If all I can swallow is thickened liquids, then chocolate ice cream it will be! The day will come soon enough when I will not be able to swallow at all.
In my ‘sweet-home-away-from-home,’ I see myself getting a manicure, my hair is done up daily and I sport a garland of pearls around my neck. I am smiled upon and made to feel my wrinkles are simply laugh-lines. It is being known and loved that brings me value! Should my adventures bring me all the way to a hundred years, God will be smiling at me through my caregiver’s.
My dream home already exists. For I am a caregiver. I am a 'lady in waiting'. These are my aunts, my 'great' and 'grand' mothers! These precious, funny ladies are ME-- some day.
Will you stake-out a homestead for YOUR heart?
"What goes around, comes around."
Speak out against the practice of automatic
institutionalization of our seniors!
Will you be an ADVOCATE?
Tomorrow you may need one.
