Author notes

Rhymes With Witch 7

KAM

on Jan. 12, 2006

Some people I know are taking care of an elderly relative. The day before I originally posted this they recieved a phone call from a nursing home who had heard of the relative's condition & the phoner was surprised to hear that the family was taking care of the relative as she hadn't heard of that before.

Is that a sad comment on our society or what? (Nothing against nursing homes, just the idea that families taking care of their own is now so unusual.)

I understand that nursing homes serve a useful purpose. My grandmother who has Alzheimers is in one. Also families are smaller nowadays and spread out farther than they used to be so family taking care of older relatives isn't as common as it used to be.

What I thought was sad was that the caller had not heard of family members taking care of older relatives. Like it's not worth the effort. "Gosh, Muffy, mom is 41! We'd better stick her in the old folks home!"