A reminder we can be better friends to the elderly
Sep 19, 2017, 9:50 AM | Updated: Oct 1, 2024, 10:41 am
From an early age, I remember driving by a nursing home with my mother and the next thing to happen was predictable: she’d start talking about the injustices inflicted on the elderly.
My mother, always even-keeled and collected, was particularly passionate about this, so it stood out. I’ve asked over the years why she’s an advocate for elder care, but recently re-upped the conversation after watching a Steve Hartman piece for CBS Sunday.
She told me, “I was working at Ballard Convalescent Home and noticed so many lonely residents. Some had strong family support but the majority had zero, which shocked me as a teen. I just really enjoyed talking with them. Their pasts were so interesting to me. A life lived and now just forgotten. I decided I cared. I would wave or say ‘hi’ and bring pansies from the garden.”
My mom said she also pictured her own parents in a home and decided ‘no way’ they would end up lonely. She treated every elderly person as she would her own parents.
She went on to become a Licensed Practical Nurse (LPN) and worked in hospitals for years before bravely raising three children at home. Her love for the elderly endures to this day and she’s instilled that in me.
So, when Steve Hartman came out with his latest story on CBS, I started tearing up at my desk. It’s about a woman, Marleen Brooks, who found a letter in her mailbox from an elderly neighbor two doors down is a house so quiet that Marleen thought it was abandoned. Then, she knocked on the door.
You can hear Colleen O’Brien’s “Daily Dose of Kindness” segment every morning at 7:30 a.m. on KIRO Radio 97.3 FM
