Page 22 - Seniorstoday September 2022 Issue
P. 22
Spotlight
A home away from home
RV Rajan visits senior citizen homes and finds residents happy and leading
an independent life
My first exposure to an old age home was I am very happy in the old age home with a lot
17 years ago when my mother-in-law was of new friends to talk to. I also visit the temple
admitted to a modest home run by a distant every day with my friends and attend other
relative located in a busy residential colony programs organised at the temple. I am free
in the suburbs of Chennai. Though it had no to do what I like. At my daughter`s home,
facilities like what you get in the modern-day I spend the whole day only watching TV or
gated communities of senior citizens, it was listen to music. Everybody is so busy…”
close to a popular temple and other facilities The second home where she lived was a
required by senior citizens and provided better home sponsored by a Rotary Club
home-cooked meals. My mother-in-law, a attached to a popular hospital in the heart of
highly independent woman who died at the the city with an independent room. I met a
ripe age of 89, spent the last years of her life in few others from this home, many of whom
senior citizen homes as per a decision taken by had sold their properties or rented out their
her son living in the US. homes to settle down in the well-run Senior
I would bring her home for a week every Citizen Home. Here, they not only made new
month in the early years so that she could friends but also indulged in hobbies for which
spend some time with my family. This was my they had no time earlier. All of them agreed it
way of telling her that we do care for her. One was a comfortable life without the day-to-day
day, while returning to her old age home, she responsibilities and problems faced when
apparently told my driver: “I don’t know why living alone.
my son-in-law brings me home every month. Has anything changed with Senior Citizen
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