Who takes care of us in our final years?
I thought you would be interested in this story I found on MSN:
If you have no children, who will care for you when your're old?
![A young person holds an older woman’s hand.: ‘Older people without children barely feature in policy discussion or planning for local provision.’]({"default":{"load":"default","w":"73","h":"44","src":"//img-s-msn-com.akamaized.net/tenant/amp/entityid/BBB2utn.img?h=437&w=728&m=6&q=60&o=f&l=f"},"size3column":{"load":"default","w":"62","h":"38","src":"//img-s-msn-com.akamaized.net/tenant/amp/entityid/BBB2utn.img?h=375&w=624&m=6&q=60&o=f&l=f"},"size2column":{"load":"default","w":"62","h":"38","src":"//img-s-msn-com.akamaized.net/tenant/amp/entityid/BBB2utn.img?h=375&w=624&m=6&q=60&o=f&l=f"}})
Few of us are immune from the anxiety that can quickly set in when we contemplate our own ageing. Who will be there for us whenuscan no longer physically take care of ourselves? Who will be around to remind us of who we were in our moments of lucidity when our minds have started slipping away?
For those of us who don’t have children, these questions take on a particular significance. I had mixed feelings after watching Still Alice, an Oscar-winning depiction of early-onset dementia. It made for grim viewing. But it was easy to imagine the ways it could have been even grimmer: what if the protagonist, Alice, had no children, a partner long departed or divorced, or friends who had drifted away?
1 comments
1 comments
I have been through the hoops with both my own mother and my mother in law.
They suddenly become frail, but I needed to respect their wishes, their thoughts of what they needed to be done. How they wanted to lived their every day lives when they had lost their independence.
That was 7 & 9 years ago now.
But lots of people don't have close relations to care them.
I have often heard of the elderly living alone and nobody cares, with no visitors, and today with all our social welfare!
I used to do voluntary social work for Australian Care, mainly just taking two elderly ladies shopping once a week as they could not get out of their Aged Care Home, that was in the 1980s. But they were able to afford an Aged Care Home, some folks don't have the courage to ask for help.
People don't want to know this time in our lives.
I remember saying to my mother aged around 85/86 why don't you join the Senior cits mum?
She came back with, 'but they are old like me' " I want to mix with younger people'!
Today I can understand where she was coming from! I like to mix with younger people, say in their 50s! It keeps me on my toes and I think younger.