HAPPY BIRTHDAY

Long-Term Care Program Needs Changes – NYTimes

Ayman woke up that morning in a foul mood. His back grieved him. His knees irked him. What little teeth he had left pestered him. As he wrestled himself out of bed and eased himself into the adjacent chair, strategically pointed at the TV, he relinquished a distressed sigh. As a gray sky dawned on another morning in suburban New York, he was 84 years old. As per his habitude, he would spend the better part of the day sitting in his recliner, one of the few belongings he had been able to scavenge from his home. He did not like to participate in group activities. He did not enjoy socializing with the other residents. He had few pleasures. Diagnosed early with diabetes, he still allowed himself the odd sweet, which he devoured with relish, a rare glimpse of infantile merriment in his eyes. His liver sporting a rather disagreeable grimace on most x-rays, and against doctors’ orders, he still overindulged in his favorite liquor, which one of the nurses sneaked in for him whenever he would run out. He had two kids, a son and a daughter, now well past the age of needing him in any way for subsistence. They had moved away years ago, even before his wife’s untimely passing. They would sometimes come visit for Christmas. Most years though, they were too busy. They would generally call on his birthday. Sometimes, they forgot. Ayman rarely saw his grandchildren. His daily routine was dependent on his daily TV schedule. The highlight of his day was ‘Jeopardy’. A longtime avid sports fan, he had given up on them after years of watching his favorite teams fall short of expectations. He rarely thought of his mother anymore, who had single-handedly raised him in a house not far from where he now hung his cane. He had long forgotten the buzzer-beating shot he had sunk to beat St. Andrews High School, after which his teammates had hoisted him up on their shoulders. The cute brunette from across the river who first unbuckled his pants and stole his innocence still brought the hint of a smile to his face. He could not, for the life of him, remember her name. The thought of his estranged brother, whom he hadn’t spoken to since their mother’s car accident, oft and again made his eyes swell with tears. He often longed for his late wife’s touch, and felt ashamed that he could no longer quite picture her face, nor recall the very first time he had laid his eyes on hers. He suddenly wished there had been more times, better times. But as gray clouds cast a shadow on another morning in suburban New York, and Ayman relinquished a distressed sigh, it was time.

It is difficult to distinguish which characteristics from the different cultures and civilizations that grace our planet impact a people’s tendencies toward their elders and how they treat their senior citizens. In a western society, though, where our attention span often extends no further than that dog’s from ‘UP’, it is customary to quell one’s conscience simply by making sure their fathers, mothers, grandparents are receiving the best attention money can buy, when in some cases, the best care could never be bought. In the winter of life, a person’s home is sometimes their final grip on the memories they gathered from this world, and for still others a sense of dignity. But where others can afford the luxury of donating their time to their elders, perhaps because the ‘ipad 2’ has not yet been released there or because the I-95 doesn’t jam up around rush hour, most tap themselves on the back and reassure themselves with the comforting thought that their parents realize that their time has come and gone. For although budget cuts from the military are simply infeasible, the nurses who attend to senior citizens in their own homes are considered expendable, but one must understand that a nation must endure some collateral damage to win the war in Afghanistan.

Note-worthy: “Mr. Foster said his analysis showed the program faced “a significant risk of failure” because people who are or expect to be sick or disabled were more likely to sign up.”