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New Crow’s Feet podcast episode releases February 26, 2025
Don’t Play the Nursing Home Game
Without knowing the secret rules and magic words
“This is how you end up in the home,” I teased my husband
As we get older, a certain dark humor creeps in when we forget a word, or where we put our keys, or when we betray any hint of absent-mindedness. We tease each other about the worst possible scenario.
In this case, my husband had forgotten to turn off the stove burner after cooking dinner.
He was hale and hearty and entirely within his right mind, so it didn’t occur to me I might be tempting fate by making such a jibe. My strong, handsome husband didn’t belong in a nursing home — not then, and not for decades. Or ever. The prospect was laughable.
Until, one day not long afterwards, it happened. Right out of the blue. All it took was a pile of wet leaves as he enjoyed his daily bike ride.
Wham.
The broken collarbone wasn’t such a big deal, but a CT scan revealed a crack in his pelvis on the same side. He couldn’t bear any weight on the left side of his body, and until he healed, that arm and leg would be offline. He couldn’t stand up without…
