She grew up in Fayetteville, where she taught Sunday school. She enjoys talking about the Bible and having people read verses to her. She likes music, especially gospel songs.
She has no family.
Oscar, an 89-year-old Monroe County native, has lived in West Virginia all of his life. He is able to stroll with the aid of a walker. He enjoys playing the harmonica and singing for the other nursing-home residents.
He has no family.
These are typical profiles of the people who living in nursing homes because they require the specialized care that they can’t receive in their private homes. They are the ones who don’t have much to look forward to in the way of visitors, greeting cards or phone calls from family members and old friends.And yet, there is tenacity within these people, and feistiness, and a sense of self with little or no concern over appearance, status, or accomplishment — or any of the driving forces that seem to define how most of us gauge ourselves.
These senior citizens could tell us much about the art of growing old.
Most of them display a peculiarly gracious attitude toward their bout with time.
But the days just before any special occasion or holidays seem most severe.
Troubled feelings creep in — feelings of isolation, aloneness, separation; feelings of loneliness, helplessness and boredom — reminding us that these are the constant companions of far too many nursing home residents.
Week by week, hour by hour, minute by minute — many nursing home residents know how it feels to have everything taken away from them — everything but their aloneness.
Loneliness, helplessness and boredom don’t even begin to describe the agony some senior citizens feel when their thoughts are dominated by an aching desire to just go home.
What can be done to soothe an aching spirit for those who have left behind all the things that make their life meaningful, things that give them a purpose for living?
A little mail for nursing-home residents goes a long way in spreading cheer.
“Our clients would love to get a card or letter or cassette tape from caring people,” a local nursing home administrator explained. “It makes them feel that someone outside the facilities they are there and that they are important. It helps build the citizens self worth.”
Which is where all of you come in.
Pick a name. Better yet, pick up the phone, call a nursing home, and ask for an address.
And send a greeting card or a valentine.
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Facebook: The Forgotten Ones - Compassion for the Elderly
We often overlook the simple things that could bring people so much pleasure.
ReplyDeleteThank you, The Forgotten Ones - Compassion for the Elderly, for your gentle reminders. And thank you as always, NASGA.
It is bad enough that people live in loneliness due to not having a family. That, combines with the undeniable fact that all across the United States of America, senior citizens and their family members are forced to live in isolation and debilitating loneliness,caused by probate judges who consistently order that they shall not be able to normally see each other, order that isolation and loneliness makes this a country of fools, fools who cannot or will not honor the worth of human life,the family home and the value of love.
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