In our society, there are some topics that it’s not customary to discuss. Or rather, if you express an opinion that differs from society, you will be condemned. This is what separates us from long ago developed, democratic Europe. There you can easily express your opinion about what you care about or how you think in this or that situation and no one will judge you.
So what’s the point of my story? The point is that my mother has been living in an old people’s home for a year now. Well, how old, she is almost 70, she walks, in a clear mind and a good mind to talk about everything, quite a cheerful woman. But for several years she kept telling me that she wanted to live in such a boarding house.
I live abroad, in Europe. And when I found out about my mother’s wish, I immediately realized that it was all about loneliness. My mother was only married once, my father left us, it was the deepest trauma for her, so she did not associate her fate with anyone else. She worked all her life as an accountant, and she taught me. And then I went abroad and made my own life there. More than once I offered my mother to move in with me, my husband wouldn’t mind, and my grandchildren wanted to see my grandmother.
But my independent and self-sufficient mother said that the best place for her would be this type of boarding house. After all, people there are the same age as she is – they have common interests and goals. In such boarding houses, they look after people who are old, arrange their leisure time, and everything in general.
What does the average citizen of our country imagine when I talk about such an institution? Immediately everyone thinks about how unscrupulous I am for turning my own mother in. After all, everyone immediately imagines a horrible old institution with stripped walls, dampness, and stench. Everyone thinks that the old people there are bullied and do everything to make them quickly go to the other world. But this is not true. Even in Russia, such paid institutions provide excellent care for the elderly. No one is crammed into a room with ten people. Everyone has their own small room with their own bathroom, meals are provided, and everyone’s health is monitored. Besides, it is not a cheap luxury to live there.
Abroad, everyone is fine with it. Just because they understand that elderly people need special conditions and they are very afraid of loneliness. In the same facility, no one feels lonely, they develop in the field in which they want and do what they love.
I don’t encourage everyone to turn their parents over to boarding schools. Especially since it can’t happen without a person’s personal desire. But I urge to treat it more simply. Elderly people also want to live their lives in an interesting way and in society, not be closed in their apartment and wait all day for a relative to come back and talk to them for at least an hour.
