How To Visit a Loved One In the Nursing Home
It’s not easy but it can be so important
When I was little, my mom periodically took me along with her when she visited elderly relatives and friends in the nursing home.
Most little kids don’t enjoy these types of visits, and I’m sure they weren’t easy for my mom either.
I’m older now (whether I’ll ever truly be a “grown-up” still remains to be seen) and have spent the past year visiting my Mom in assisted living, and then in Memory Care.
These visits haven’t been anything like what I thought they would be. It turns out the end of life is similar to the beginning and the middle: the only thing you can expect in life is the unexpected.
The elderly relatives and friends who I visited with my mother (and, later on, on my own) had largely ended up in pretty stereotypical nursing homes due to their physical ailments and limitations. My great-uncle Franz had had polio as a youth and was primarily confined to a wheelchair. My grandfather only went to the nursing home when he was too frail to live safely on his own, and also largely used a wheelchair. My elderly friends Waneta and Alice, although both sharp in mind to the end, were in their respective beds in their rooms whenever I went to see them.
