I have been considering a question that needs some clarification, and wanted to share it with the readers of The Latest.

Fortunately, I am still plugging along and writing as often as I can for the blog. I celebrated my husband's eighty-fourth birthday with him last Sunday, and although we both have our ups and downs, we are thankful to be together making the most out of every day.

I live in a senior citizen residence, and thus have the opportunity to witness how different people deal with the process of aging. They too are fortunate, as they are still living on their own.

In addition, I had been calling a wonderful man who was stuck in his apartment for quite a while with a bad leg, and now has been moved to a nursing home by his children.

I have no doubt that his family meant well, but he felt resentful of the nurses who came to his home daily to bathe and care for him. It is sad that someone who was self sustaining for years should suddenly find himself in such a position.

I asked him whether there were computers in the place where he is presently living, and he said that as far as he knew, the only computer was in the manager's office. 

What are people supposed to do all day if they still have active minds, and there is nothing to keep them occupied? I didn't ask if the residents had a chance to read books that were made available by visiting librarians. 

I will say that there is a computer room here in the place where I live, and librarians come on a specific day each month to service the residents. However, it must also be remembered that not everyone who lives in this building is aged. Some of the people here are unable to get out because of health issues that can't be handled at home, and so their situations are somewhat different.

My telephone companion's initial response to how he felt about the place where he lives was that the people were all so old. That sheds a somewhat different light on what he is experiencing. All I could say to him was that he should feel free to call me when he needed to speak to someone, as there is no voice mailbox on the phone.

I didn't ask my friend if the residents ever go on trips outside of the home, but I would wager that his answer would have been no.

From my perspective, his family should have looked for a place where even those in wheel chairs or using walkers were able to get out into the world on occasion, and are not treated like invalids.

It seems to me that we need to take another look at how we treat people when they grow older and are incapacitated physically, but are still of good mind.