Well my Christmas was a very quiet affair, I had to work Boxing day so I couldn't indulge too much in the frivolity. Working at an aged care home it was sad to see how many of the old souls "hated" Christmas, how it can be such a lonely & sad time for them. Out of a total of 40 residents only 2 went "home" for Christmas - cause lets face it, no matter how hard you try, a nursing home is never really a "home".
Christmas is also a time when all the relatives come out of the woodwork to visit - bearing gifts. What will they bring this year I wonder? .....yet another tube of hand cream perhaps? or maybe a new pair of slippers? No, Nana hasn't got dementia, it's just been so long since she's seen you that she's forgotten your name! Oh how ashamed I am to be part of a culture that relegates their elderly to institutions. These people deserve to be taken proper care of at home, not cloistered together & banished away behind closed doors. I just hope I can take care of my parents one day, the way they took care of me for so many years - it'll be a privilege.
