One of the inevitable things in life is that we age. And every culture has their own way of coming to terms with this life changing event. At age 96, Nurse, the woman pictured did not live in a nursing home and was not dependent on the goverment to supplement her income or to to provide resources for her. In Jamaica care for the elderly is a family responsibility. One's later years are spend in the same house with family members.
I remember my own Great grand-mother. She lived with my Grandmother, her daughter until she passed away at the age of 98. My grandmother took care her mother every day. And even though, my grand-uncle was not physically present in the house, he too shared the responsibility of providing for my Great grand-mother. If you have an aging loved one, I would be interested to know how they are being cared for and what are some of the family changes and or accomodations that have happened as a result.
I think changes in our society have contributed to fewer seniors being cared for by family, In my case I live in the southern US and my fatehr lived in Canada. When he was no longer able to care for himself I was not able to bring him here ( no health insurance -nor did he want to come) and I would have had to leave my husband and school aged children. There were no other family members able to care for him -it was the only solution.
ReplyDeleteIt is getting more and more expensive to live day to day in the U. States. I have found more people working three jobs (per person) instead of the more normal two jobs, and staying married long enough to raise children. I do not need so much to get by and am lucky my man is not too much involved in having lots of stuff either. We do have two dogs, a nice neighborhood and a daughter that we are helping through college. My mother lives a few blocks from us (less than half a mile) and I visit as much as I want. My middle sister has lived with her, they have lived together, for many years to keep the payments on their small house and they each have a car. Mother is left alone during the day and she enjoys her freedom to do as she wishes. My middle sister is very smart and has a job that pays well. She sees my Mother in the evenings when she comes home from work and makes sure Mother has remembered to go to her doctor appointments or taken her medicine. Now my older sister has moved in because her marriage broke up and she needed a place to start over. She has lived with our sister and Mother for over a year without success in getting a full time job so that she can support herself on her own. So she works when she can and pays rent to Mother. My husband is their handy man for working on the house and fence. Sometimes he does some wiring. My brother takes care of the plumbing and his wife takes care of legal and medical things for Mother that the rest of us do not understand or don't have time for. This summer the two men will be replacing the roof on the house. Mother has had both knees replace in the past year and is doing well. We all take turns going on trips in the area with her so that she is always stimulated with the wonder of nature. The coast of Oregon is her favorite place to visit but I like to take her to the high desert of Oregon for sun and snow. We live in the Valley where we get plenty of rain and we all get very tired of that. When it is time for her to have full care I will retire and stay during the day and my middle sister will be home every evening and weekends. Mother is going to live a long (74 years so far) and loved life before this is over. We all work to keep her with us but love it when she takes trips with her friends. My husbands parents (both living) are retired and self supporting with the investments they made in their lives. They wish for no help from their children and have detailed plans for anything that could happen in the future. They do not want their children living with them and they do not want to live with any of their children. They are younger than my Mother and are very active. They love their grandchildren and spend much time on the phone with them or visiting them. That is the way my husband and I are taking care of our parents. Our daughter watches and says we do not need to worry about our future with her because she will make sure we are taken care of as we wish when we get older.
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