The cacaphony of the elderly

Photo by Veri Ivanova on Unsplash

My dad had surgery to put in a pacemaker a couple years ago. It’s not a small thing for someone who had reached age 95. For most people, inserting a pacemaker carries little risk, and so it was for Dad, too, but we had to be sure.

I’m the fifth daughter, the seventh of eight kids. We take our turns looking after Dad — my mom is in long-term care, in the latter stages of dementia and Alzheimer’s. But mostly, the…