Two years ago, something happened that changed the way I look at the world. On my birthday, my grandfather, walking home with his hands full of groceries, fell and hit his head on the sidewalk. Just as we were leaving to meet him for dinner, we got the call that he was in the hospital. At first, I thought nothing of it, but when I heard the whole story, I couldn't believe it. He hit his head so hard that he had a blood clot in his brain and it had to be operated on immediately. Everyone thought he would die.
Although my grandfather survived emergency brain surgery, he had complications (后遗症). He could hardly talk and he couldn't walk. Shortly after, he was admitted to a nursing home. Today, he lives at home with my grandmother and is doing much better, but this isn't about him. It's about what I saw at that nursing home.
I saw something that many people haven't seen, and some do often choose to ignore it, I saw more sadness in those days visiting the nursing home than I thought. In that one place were hundreds of old people who were alone and forgotten.
So what as to be done with the situation of the old? This is not an easy question, but something must be done. Perhaps groups in the community could assign each member to one nursing home patient with whom they could keep in regular contact. Maybe a school could focus on a nursing home and send cards, pictures and letters to residents. If periodic visits were arranged, I'm sure that for some, if not many, those students would be the only visitors they had all month. These are just a few ideas; we all need to work together.
I hope everyone to tour a local nursing home I further expect you to do something about it. You'll brighten someone's day, or maybe even his or her life.
