Sobering & Thought-Provoking
Visited two old-aged homes as part of team-building day. I've never been to one, and indeed hte experience was an eye-opener and gave me much food for thought.
The first home sits on neatly manicured lawns and had close to 200 residents. Thought it is near an expressway, I was very surprised that you could hardly hear the traffic buzz. It was tranquil.
Many of them are not ambulant and I guess those years caring for Dad helped me a lot in knowing what to say and how to make them more comfortable. Some of my friends were somewhat clueless on what to do. They simply hung back, unsure and hesitant.
While some reasons are valid (language barrier for example), others I think could be overcome slowly through exposure. It is the limited interaction that we have with very aged and frail old folks that caused many of us to wonder what we could do.
Apart from presenting some items (half-baked singing) and games for them, the rest of the time was spent serving them food. I wondered if we did them any good, by such an infrequent visit. It would be, I think, far better for us to adopt a home for a year and volunteer there regularly.
Off to another home. This time, a language barrier existed for me. I could only hold an old woman's hand, while she gripped it tightly and recounted (as interpreted by a friend), how her daughter had failed to come and see her increasingly - till the time came when she thought that she had been abandoned to live a lonely twilight for good.
For an old lady of 80, her grip was surprisingly (and excruiciatingly) firm. Speechless, I just let her hold my hand.
It was heart-breaking to say the least, to hear such stories. Even the Home manager acknowledged that many the residents were abandonment cases.
Many of us left with a disturbed frame of mind. Will we, ourselves, face a day where we grow old, frail, mind wandering off, unable to walk, bedridden or unable to even do the simplest things that we take for granted?
Is there more we could do for them?
The first home sits on neatly manicured lawns and had close to 200 residents. Thought it is near an expressway, I was very surprised that you could hardly hear the traffic buzz. It was tranquil.
Many of them are not ambulant and I guess those years caring for Dad helped me a lot in knowing what to say and how to make them more comfortable. Some of my friends were somewhat clueless on what to do. They simply hung back, unsure and hesitant.
While some reasons are valid (language barrier for example), others I think could be overcome slowly through exposure. It is the limited interaction that we have with very aged and frail old folks that caused many of us to wonder what we could do.
Apart from presenting some items (half-baked singing) and games for them, the rest of the time was spent serving them food. I wondered if we did them any good, by such an infrequent visit. It would be, I think, far better for us to adopt a home for a year and volunteer there regularly.
Off to another home. This time, a language barrier existed for me. I could only hold an old woman's hand, while she gripped it tightly and recounted (as interpreted by a friend), how her daughter had failed to come and see her increasingly - till the time came when she thought that she had been abandoned to live a lonely twilight for good.
For an old lady of 80, her grip was surprisingly (and excruiciatingly) firm. Speechless, I just let her hold my hand.
It was heart-breaking to say the least, to hear such stories. Even the Home manager acknowledged that many the residents were abandonment cases.
Many of us left with a disturbed frame of mind. Will we, ourselves, face a day where we grow old, frail, mind wandering off, unable to walk, bedridden or unable to even do the simplest things that we take for granted?
Is there more we could do for them?
posted by Leng @ 7:43 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home