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Visit A Nursing Home

Tonight I watched a PBS special. It was a concert where rockers from the 60’s and 70’s were doing a reunion special. Some of these guys looked old. If we saw them on the street we would consider them to be old duffers.

As many of you know, I work in nursing homes. Watching the concert made me think about the folks who are residents in those facilities. Some of the women could be the very same women who were screaming their heads off at the Beatles concert at the Cow Palace in San Francisco. Or any other city they preformed in.

The folks in the nursing homes had lives. We tend to look at older folks and dismiss them as lifeless people waiting to die. These people were war heroes, storekeepers, moms, dads, hard working citizens, spies, race car drivers, milkmen. Some of them even built aircraft and ships for war. And some of them flew the planes and crewed the ships.

The attitude of so many younger people is that the earth just started. They are the first ones to be here. The old people were created that way, just to make the younger ones look good.

How do any of these people think our country became great? By being a panty waste nation? I think not. Good American blood was spilled to make this the land of the free. These good Americans are in nursing homes all across the land. Their hard working widowed wives are there also.

That lady sitting in the wheel chair with saliva dripping from her mouth flew airplanes to England so that our Army Airmen could kick the snot out of the Germans. Or the Japanese for that matter. These are not just words in unread history books. These are real people who have done a real job so that you and I can tell the government to kiss our asses.

These were the folks who sent their sons and daughters off to Vietnam. These are the folks who have a folded American flag stored in the hall closet. Or the woman whose husbands never came home from Korea. We owe them and it’s time for them to collect.

Instead of turning on some stupid television programme, or playing some worthless video game, how about visiting a nursing home and listen to what these folks have to say. Or maybe just sitting and reading to them. This is a fact. When we are that age, the young people then will be thinking the same things as they are now. Except then, it will be you and I with our lunch on our dresses.

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Comment by Paidra Delayno on December 15, 2007 at 7:45pm: Thank you so much for your remarks. These folks are a national treasure, a vertial wealth of information. As you said, we must not throw it away!
Paidra

Comment by Linda Alexander on December 15, 2007 at 5:24pm: Paidra:

Your article SHOULD be commented on . . . I've just found it & wholeheartedly share your thoughts. I'm a biographer & make it a point to dig into the stories of folks who aren't on the front page every day, or who don't make the 6 PM news. Interviews are my life's blood & I LOVE to sit for hours & talk w/folks & listen to their stories.

My favorite quote: "History is the essence of innumerable biographies."

And yes, go to a nursing home & listen to those biographies. In fact, go to your parents & grandparents, if you can . . . or your aunts & uncles. Or your elderly next-door-neighbor. Listen to these people when they want to tell you about the "good ol' days" because each time we lose one of these people -- & we're all fast becoming "one of these people" -- we lose one more piece of history.

Blessings -- Linda Aelxander
www.lindajalexander.net
www.authorsden.com/lindajalexander

Comment by padma narayanswamy on October 14, 2007 at 10:56pm: it is always nice to serve mankind but In India we do not have strangers visiting the sick . to my knowledge only relatives and friends visit people in India

Comment by Paidra Delayno on October 14, 2007 at 12:04pm: Wow!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Somebody actually commented on one of my articles. I'm quite excited. On the more serious side, thank you so much for your comment.

Comment by Pastor Sharon Billington on October 14, 2007 at 12:00pm: Thanks for this. As you know, George provided occupational therapy services to long term care residents before he was called to the ministry full time. You thoughts are a great tribute to our God, Who thankfully looks on the inside and not the outside, which does not necessarily reflect who we are or what we've done. Though limited in some very real physical and sometimes mental ways, these wonderful people still have lots to give, share and teach.

Warmly, with all blessings,
Pastor Sharon Billington
http://www.encouragingwordsministries.com
Transforming lives through developing balanced, emotionally healthy relationships with God, others and self