Respect!

When visiting some hospice patients the other day, I felt so bad.  There was a husband and wife in the same nursing home, but in separate rooms.  These dear people were both in their 90s.  They've been together for many, many years.  They chose to spend their lives together.  They are obviously choosing to leave this earth at the same time since they are both hospice patients.  Why then can't they do it together?  Why can't they be in the same room?  It just doesn't seem right
.

In a perfect world they would be able to live out their lives in their own home - together.  Since they have to be in a nursing home, they should at least be able to be in the same room.  And how about pushing the beds together too so they know the other one is there.



There just needs to be more heart.  Dying and/or being elderly isn't a disease, it's a natural progression of life.  We are all going to die sometime.  If we're lucky, it will be when we are elderly.  Wouldn't you want to be treated with understanding and compassion?  Wouldn't you still want to be treated like a human being?  Wouldn't you like to feel that you mattered?  Of course you would.  I think these people would too.


I believe that most people that are taking care of the elderly are doing the best they can.  I also know that they have rules and laws that they have to abide by in order to receive compensation from government institutions.  But even with these restrictions, I think it could be done so much better.

It wouldn't take much to make this happen.  Most nursing homes already have two beds in each room.  It wouldn't take much effort to move one of these people into the other person's room.  We need to remember that we're ALL part of the same human family.  Let's start treating everyone - even the elderly and dying - with the same love, compassion, understanding and respect that we desire for ourselves and our families.



Love,  Paula