I and one other friend and our resoective spouses had made the choice years prior to 2020 to turn our lives upside-down and live with aging parents rather than institutionalize them. That paid off. In spades. Our respective parents are no worse off as 2021 draws to a close than they would normally be expected to be at their ages. (For two of them this is, in fact, how are you still alive even levels of lack of health.) They are as okay as ever; have enough interaction with family, including their grandkids, to stay sane and mentally healthy; spend at least some time outside; and are generally, well, my default answer to how mine are is "Ornery as ever!" None of them are well, none of them have been well in the last decade, but they are as well as anyone would normally be with the combination of age and medical issues they have. Some of our mutual friends have expressed regrets that they "weren't able to" keep their elderly parents at home.
It's a hard, counter-cultural choice. I have the easy setting enabled for counter-cultural, my friend simply decided to do what she and her husband thought was best regardless of consequence, and he has an autism disabled son that lives with them also, so perhaps they got the easy setting, too.
no subject
That paid off. In spades.
Our respective parents are no worse off as 2021 draws to a close than they would normally be expected to be at their ages. (For two of them this is, in fact, how are you still alive even levels of lack of health.) They are as okay as ever; have enough interaction with family, including their grandkids, to stay sane and mentally healthy; spend at least some time outside; and are generally, well, my default answer to how mine are is "Ornery as ever!" None of them are well, none of them have been well in the last decade, but they are as well as anyone would normally be with the combination of age and medical issues they have.
Some of our mutual friends have expressed regrets that they "weren't able to" keep their elderly parents at home.
It's a hard, counter-cultural choice. I have the easy setting enabled for counter-cultural, my friend simply decided to do what she and her husband thought was best regardless of consequence, and he has an autism disabled son that lives with them also, so perhaps they got the easy setting, too.
BoysMom