Description
This work of fiction deals with a topic that many people find difficult to think about. Until the most recent three or four generations, humans eagerly looked forward to moving though the stages of development from babyhood to adulthood, impatient to become the masters of their own destinies. The rites of passage were well known and embraced by most everyone in our western culture. Until the modern age of the twentieth century, the extended family still personally provided shelter and care for their elderly. But as society changed so did the attitudes toward the burden of caring for the elderly at home and the use of nursing homes as the final places for the elderly, chronically sick and disabled became common. The guilt associated with placing one's difficult to care for elderly and chronically ill loved ones became gradually diffused by the knowledge that they could receive better care and attention by skilled providers of medical and routine care. Unfortunately, to this day, guilt still plagues those of us who truly care about our loved ones who we have a difficult time physically and emotionally caring for at home. This can be made worse if our relationships with these loved ones never matured into healthy, loving separation where each respects the needs of the other.
As the use of nursing homes developed into a more specialized and widely accepted medical industry, the need for more regulatory oversight became needed to correct the failure by many nursing homes to protect their vulnerable residents. In spite of the ever increasing regulations of the 1970s '80s and '90s, there continued to be shoddily managed facilities whose lack of oversight and true concern for this most vulnerable population group led to neglect and abuse of sometimes a shocking nature. In spite of penalties including large fines and sometimes loss of Medicare and Medicaid certification and even the closure of the worst facilities, abuses still continued and continue to this day. This is a story which is in some ways heartwarming, and at the same time disturbing. Although any or all of the types of situations depicted in this work of fiction could have happened and have happened somewhere sometime, none of the companies, facilities people or events are real, and are a product of the author's imagination. I hope you enjoy this story and can relate to the fact that many well-meaning people who devote their lives to the caring of our vulnerable populations start out with good intentions and find themselves caught up in a web of opposing pressures that either lead them down the dark path of neglect and abuse or they remain true to their purpose and develop into even better human beings. And I also hope that you can relate to the leading character of in the story, who really thought he was planning out his life in a way that allowed for a comfortable retirement and exit strategy for this life. But in spite of anyone's plans and expectations, the unexpected things in life can lead one down a far different path.