We Are Going To Be Elderly One Day

Posted on June 6, 2013 by Who I am

icon of elderly people

Is there something about elderly people that scares us younger ones? Is it the frail statue, or maybe the wrinkles. Could it be that they talk to much about the past and we don’t get it? Maybe they move too slow.

We are all going to get old. It is inevitable, it is going to happen. I live on what is known as Senior Lane. A short row of homes that on my side elderly live.

I know each person well enough to know their concerns in life. My one neighbor her children feel that she is not able to manage her money well enough. This may have some truth in it, but I think the adult kids have overstepped some. I know, Terry, mind your own business.

Don’t worry, I have not voiced my thoughts to these two sweethearts that live on either side of me. The one that I am speaking of gets outside with her electric lawn mower and mows her own yard. She plays in her flower garden. She is involved with her church activities. Her kids give her an allowance for spending money and pay her bills with her funds. Maybe it works out for everyone, but I think the elderly lady feels a bit abused.

If her church activities include some outing she has to go to her kids and explain why she wants some extra money. I only have heard the one side of this story, hers. Maybe hearing both sides would make more sense to me.

I know it reminds me of Al at the nursing home. He has most of his mind and hates it when the facility tells him what they think he should be able to have in his own room. They come to me and tell me to remove this or that. I thought Al was an adult and he pays a heap of money to have half that room.

Should we as the younger generation make their decisions for them? Is there a line that should not be crossed as long as the elderly are behaving with an alert mind?

My other neighbor, now I feel real sorry for her. She has Parkinson’s like Al does, but the only thing I notice is some slight shaking. I don’t believe she is as advanced as Al is. She has many more medical issues than my other neighbor. She goes to the doctor quite frequently. She is able to walk but tires easily. She lives alone also and fixes her own meals.

There are many times she may nibble on a bite here or there for a meal. She claims she just isn’t that hungry. Now her family is involved in a different way. If there is a vacation they insist that Mom goes along.

I have heard the neighbor tell her family she really doesn’t want to go on these trips. They tire her and she would rather rest in her own bed at night. They take no for an answer. When it comes to things around the house they aren’t there for her.

She tells me constantly that her grandkids don’t have time for her. They never come to see her. No one in her family mows her tiny yard. My son mows it and I wonder if it would be knee-high if he didn’t do this for her.

She weeps when my son finishes because she says she is ashamed that her family won’t help. So this family insists that if there are reunions, birthdays or vacations, Mom has to go. No ifs ands or buts.

I know how I feel when I am stressed out about Al. It takes everything I have inside to sometimes go visit. Not that I don’t want to see him, but I hate how I allow his emotions to suck me in. Pity takes over and a sadness looms over me.

When I don’t feel well, I sure wouldn’t mind a phone call or a knock at the door knowing someone cares enough to check on me. I don’t want to go out and socialize when I am under the weather.

We are all going to get old some day. Have you thought about what you want to have happen or not to happen? Do you want your finances taken over by your children? Who is going to take care of yard maintenance if you can’t do it?

Will you want to lean on your grandkids because they are family? Or will you and I look at them as they have their own lives to live and don’t want to bother with the old people. It is something to think about.

I know I do. I wonder how it will work out if I have to go live with my daughter one day. Will it be a problem with it being long-term? Will I interrupt their marriage? Will I try to run their lives like I did my own? Will I be able to adjust? Will they, when it is longer than a vacation?

I know that I don’t have the funds to live in an assisted living facility. I didn’t plan when I was younger. I wanted to be a stay-at-home mommy, and therefore I do not have this nice retirement today. I live month to month and hope for God to take care of what I can not.

I wish I would have thought things out when I was younger, but I don’t think many young people, newly married people, actually think about getting old. There are no retirements today like our parents had. 401’s are not secure, and stocks are like roller coaster. Maybe I should have done like our fore fathers did and hid my money under my old mattress. Keep a shot-gun beside my bed, and a guard dog outside my front door.

I don’t know what the answers are today. I just see what my neighbors go through and they are only two of millions. I wonder what their stories are……………

Love Thy Neighbor (hookstanya.wordpress.com)
Assisted living facility reforms fail to pass (miamiherald.com)
Elder Abuse in Nova Scotia: Journey on the Path to Policy (highheelsandasoapbox.com)
That time I met my neighbor. Twice. (myowncombination.wordpress.com)
Jacksonville attorney accused of exploiting her elderly wards for more than $100,000 (jacksonville.com)
Essay 3 Final- Proposal (deandanl.wordpress.com)
Health Tips For Preventing Falls In The Elderly (lifefoneblog.com)
What I Learned About Being a Good Neighbor From My Preschooler (thedogoodermama.com)
Bumhudzo: a haven for the elderly (thezimbabwean.co)

Daily Prompt; The Zone

Posted on June 6, 2013 by Who I am

http://dailypost.wordpress.com, DP, Daily Prompt

Tell us about your favorite way to get lost in a simple
activity — running, chopping vegetables, folding laundry, whatever.
What’s it like when you’re in “the zone”?

Photographers, artists, poets: show us LOST.

You are going to fall off of your chair from laughing when you read what makes me so happy and lost in my own zone.

No, it isn’t shopping. No, it isn’t going out with my friends, although I love that. No, it isn’t reunions, or eating my favorite foods. It is cleaning.

Yes, cleaning. I think partly because I spent so much of my time as a teen trying to please my parents it feels like home to me.

No phone calls, no door knocks. A t-shirt and shorts and barefoot. Music turned up and off I go. I would move the living room furniture around. Clean the windows and sweep and dust.

I would move from room to room until it shined and smelled so good. Now don’t get me wrong. There are certain types of cleaning I don’t care for. I only wash the curtains twice a year, and sometimes only once in the Spring.

I don’t mind cleaning my indoor windows, but I would prefer someone else to do the outside windows. I washed my living room walls down for the first time this spring and I have lived here a year and a half.

I take down my antiques that sit above the kitchen shelves once a year. Cleaning ceiling fans I do about three times a year. Rearranging closets twice a year, and only because I have to switch clothes out.

But general cleaning, yeah I love it. It makes me feel good when I rest my weary body down on my couch and take a look around. Furniture looks different. I am not stepping on any dirt on the floor, laundry is done.

Yep, for me that is my zone. Me, myself and I, music, a sweeper,dust rags and some Windex.

Do you think this is why I don’t have that hot date yet? LOL, I need to find someone to date that loves to move heavy bedroom furniture. LOL