the nursing home
He can't stay where he is.
He can't go back to where he was.
He needs more round-the-clock care than any of his children are remotely capable of providing.
There are some primo (as these things go) convalescent homes in the region. They all have waiting lists. Der Alte will be on the wrong side of the lawn long before his number is called. We are accordingly reduced to choosing among the second- and third-tier. One has been found with a vacant bed. The online reviews stop short of calling it a hellhole, but the level of care appears to hover around "mediocre" (keeping in mind that the reviewers are anguished children of the senescent). On the plus side, it's about a twenty-minute drive from my home.
The wife's experience five years ago with her own father's (mercifully briefer) decline suggests that squeaky wheels get much more grease in these establishments, provided that the squeaks are emitted from an upright position rather than from a bed.
The starship Gerentoprise will now explore strange new worlds where so many men and women have gone before.
cordially,
PS: He recently amended the relevant medical POA form to indicate that he doesn't want a feeding tube. He always had this incredibly bold signature for as long as I can remember: even two years ago it looked the way it did in 1962. As of two days ago, it's a palsied scrawl, shaky and barely legible. God, I want to die of something—anything but this extended crucifixion of everything simply wearing out in parallel.
He can't go back to where he was.
He needs more round-the-clock care than any of his children are remotely capable of providing.
There are some primo (as these things go) convalescent homes in the region. They all have waiting lists. Der Alte will be on the wrong side of the lawn long before his number is called. We are accordingly reduced to choosing among the second- and third-tier. One has been found with a vacant bed. The online reviews stop short of calling it a hellhole, but the level of care appears to hover around "mediocre" (keeping in mind that the reviewers are anguished children of the senescent). On the plus side, it's about a twenty-minute drive from my home.
The wife's experience five years ago with her own father's (mercifully briefer) decline suggests that squeaky wheels get much more grease in these establishments, provided that the squeaks are emitted from an upright position rather than from a bed.
The starship Gerentoprise will now explore strange new worlds where so many men and women have gone before.
cordially,
PS: He recently amended the relevant medical POA form to indicate that he doesn't want a feeding tube. He always had this incredibly bold signature for as long as I can remember: even two years ago it looked the way it did in 1962. As of two days ago, it's a palsied scrawl, shaky and barely legible. God, I want to die of something—anything but this extended crucifixion of everything simply wearing out in parallel.
