Every blessed day, I don't fail to think about what my old age would be like. It is amazing how our life cycle is. At a point we are helpless, looking fragile and small in the eyes of our parents, then we get to a stage where we appear glorious, full of strength and energy, and then gradually we reach a point where all that glory diminishes and we go back to childhood again.
Many people are scared of old age, once they are approaching 70-80 years old, their hearts begin to panic because they know that they are gradually reaching their last days.
However, I feel old age is something everyone should cherish and be proud of. Grey hair is supposed to be a symbol of honor and not of fear and solitude.
I grew up to know my grandparents as hardworking people, they are almost 70-80 but they still have their strength and they go to the farm to date.
Down here, old age is not a limitation or a burden. I have seen people in their late 90s in my village still working by themselves and handling some of their chores.
I know it's so unfortunate because old age is supposed to be a period of rest but they are still doing such things for themselves.
Suppose you ask me whether old people should be taken to retirement homes to enjoy their last days or remain with their families. I would say it depends.
There are families where everyone is busy going to work by morning and coming back late. In such a home, leaving an old person at home alone often will make no difference from someone who is living all by himself and that will be bad for an old person because at that point they need attention just like babies.
So, it will be best for such an old person to be taken to a retirement home and taken off properly. At Least there he/she will have someone to interact with and have fun with.
But in a situation where the family members are always available, it's best we stay with our old ones. There is no joy greater than spending life around your family.
No matter how much care one gets from a retirement home, it can never measure up to the kind of love that one will feel and enjoy spending old age with his/her children and grandchildren.
It will make the old person in question feel fulfilled. This might even extend their days on earth. Truth is at that point in life the old need the best attention and love they can ever get. It is at that point they desire to see us prove the love we have been professing to them all these while.
They become no different from babies and want to be handled as one. Nothing will make them more happy like making that desire a reality for them by deliberately being there for them at that age. They might be burdensome and annoying but is that too much of a sacrifice to make for someone who once took care of you?
In this regard, I am fully committed to staying with our old ones rather than taking them to the retirement home, except if it is beyond our power to keep them around due to lack of time and our presence.
