From PT to TP - The Thin Edge of Dignity

Dick Weinman is an AARP volunteer and an Assisted Living Guru

In the decade that I have been an inmate in an Assisted Living Facility (ALF), I have endured “… the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune… and have … taken arms against [them], and by opposing – ACCOMPLISHING NOT A DAMN THING. My experience forces me to realize - in an ALF - the Pen is not mightier than the System.

I rallied for tissues on tables in the dining room, when we oldies -  sufferers from rhinorrhea and obsessive sneezing  were forced to tolerate the coarseness of napkins or the detritus clinging to aged handkerchiefs, when we so badly needed the softness of tissues.  But I failed.

I led the verbal demonstration on the budgeting of toilet paper – only to fail again.  We should have marched with signs (“Save  Our Butts ”) on the street outside the ALF. But, again, powerless words.

Now I strike my word processor keys (one prosthetic finger at a time because of my hand and finger disability) and rise up from my wheelchair to protest the elimination of paper towels in inmates’ rooms.

A few years back, I had worked out a back-scratching trade with a previous head of housekeeping.  I would buy my own Charmin (or Northern, or Kleenex, or whatever was cheapest) and not accept the house brand, which hurt my delicate ___,  in exchange for obtaining the house paper towels. A quid-pro-quo, as it were.

But, that was long ago.  Now it looks like my quid has lost its quo. Alas, no paper towels for the inmates.

So, unless my protest is bipodal and not manual, and I march in the picket line, which, since I’m in a wheelchair, I can’t ,  I’m forced  to rely on the power of words – which, in a contest with the ALF –  is powerless.

It looks like I shop for paper towels as well as toilet paper.

[AARP photo]