Caregiving

I’m awakened by a continuous rumbling. As I sleepily struggle to forge a remembrance, foggy thoughts ruminate in my somnolent mind, and slowly cohere in recognition: it’s a huge motor idling. Clarity penetrates my torpid mind: I ask myself, why do I hear that sound outside my window? I slowly lift my head and glance at the ceiling – pools of color pulse rhythmically as the motor rumbles on.

LITTLE THINGS MEAN A LOT

His name is Myron. He’s my age. We’re two babes of the Depression, both born some place within 1933.

What do we do with dear old dad? Or sweet old mom? Or both? So muse the adult children of parents who are septuagenarians , or octogenarians, or nonagenarians, or centenarians, or, .. . God forbid - supercentenarians?

Privacy, anyone?

Our Ombudsman left us. (“Us” are the residents of the ALF I live in.) She resigned because, in addition to serving as our ALF’s Ombudsman, she had a “day job,” the job she held to earn a living. You see, working for us aged and disabled is a voluntary activity. It’s a choice a citizen makes to help the vulnerable in our communities.

I wish these written letters could morph into the sounds they signify, then you’d get the genuine sound of . . . what to call it? It’s not really abuse – but it’s not really respect, either, and it shoots to hell the declaration of “dignity,” which many – all, really - LTC facilities claim as their “holy grail.” After all, we are “elders,” with all the sacrosanct connotations the word embraces.

Cheek bones tightly squeezed, lips curved downward, brows furrowed, squinting eyes shifting side-to-side, hypervigilance exploding throughout the dining room. She and her cohorts are on the prowl – not for leaping lions, crouching copperheads, scurrilous scorpions. No! For walkers. The bi-podal choice – nay, necessity – we elderly in my Assisted Living Facility.

By Merry MacKinnon

Clackamas, Oregon – Oregon nationally ranks 4 th when it comes to meeting the long-term care needs of older residents, family caregivers and people with disabilities, according to a new national report. “Picking Up the Pace of Change: A State Scorecard on Long-Term Services and Supports” from AARP ranks the 50 states and DC. It is the third in a series of scorecards from AARP with the Commonwealth Fund and the SCAN Foundation. Oregon has moved down from third in the last report in 2014.