A Trip to a Nursing Home

I recently visited a nursing home. It was a dark place.

Entering the premises, it had a gloomy aura to it. I was visiting a family friend, and there was something that unnerved me. There was an unusual sound coming from the room across from ours. I looked over, curious. There was a woman sitting in a wheelchair in a darkly lit room. She was crying hysterically.

Promptly, a nurse rushed into her room trying to calm her down, and left minutes after her crying stopped. Then, a small sound played. It was music. Seconds after, the woman continues to cry again. My family friend explains that the music is her grandson’s and it was supposed to soothe her. It was doing the opposite.

”I want my family,” the woman would say in between her wails.

She listens to her grandson’s music, but it reminds her of the family that left her there. Nurses continued to go into her room to try shush her with the music.

“They want you to listen to this,” is what the nurses said.

The music was adding more fire to the flames. If the memory of her family saddens her, why is it rational to continue reminding her about them?  My family friend explained that the woman always cries about her family. It’s sad, but who has the power to stop her sadness other than her actual family?

After we left, my mother who is familiar with healthcare explained that the woman crying was a normal occurrence. Many people will throw elderly people into nursing homes and leave them there to rot. It’s usually done by children who’ve gotten old and are tired of looking after their parents.

It’s a sad reality no one really talks about.

Seeing that woman crying, knowing well that her “family” just left her there to cry for them every day shows the true reality of the future of many Americans in this day in age.