Awakenings

I recently found out that courtesy and respect don't mean much anymore.

My grandma, who has always been one of my best friends, recently became ill.

She lives in a nursing home and I went and stayed there a few days to be with her. The nursing home was great, they took care of us and they treated us well. They even bought coffee, which was much needed since I stayed up all night to keep an eye on her.

I recently found out by some of the staff there that respect and courtesy for our aging people are not remembered by some.

I witnessed some people speaking to the elderly like they were a nuisance to them. I was raised to respect others, especially the elderly and I was appalled at what I saw.

I go to see grandma all the time and I have never seen any clues that was going on. I guess you need to be there 24/7 to know how it really is.

I realize that nursing homes are not able to be fully staffed all the time, but that has nothing to do with respect and courtesy. I have always been told to treat others as you want to be treated.

When I am an elderly, I would want to be treated with respect and dignity. I wanted to be talked to and treated like I mean something to someone.

A lot of the people there don't have any family, the nursing home staff is all the have and most of the staff is kind and wonderful to the residents, but I watched two nurses in particular that when it came time to feed someone or give them medicine, they just plain treated them rude and it was shameful seeing that.

One of those nurses happened to be my grandma's nurse and even though the doctor had given certain orders they were to follow to ease grandma's pain, they just plain and simple refused to take time out of their social life to give her the pain medicine.

Anytime I let the nurse know what she needed or especially when I asked them for help doing something for her that she can no longer do (that takes more than one person), they were just plain rude and even told us off over a few things.

My grandma took care of me all these years and since she can no longer care for herself or demand respect for herself, it is my job to do that for her.

There are lots of nurses who care about their job and their patients, but don't be a nurse who only cares about getting paid and does as little as possible or ignores our seniors just to get a check. How would you like to be treated like that when you are that age and in that situation? I would hope that you would like to be treated with kindness and caring and that you would be surrounded by love no matter what type of setting you are in (whether it be home or a nursing home).

People come there to see their aging family members and in some cases (like mine) to be there when it's close to the end of their loved ones' life. As disgusted as I am, my only message is treat others as you want to be treated, especially our older folks because one day you will be that age too.

Another quick thought is … even though your life is busy, please take the time to visit your aging family members and make sure they are being cared for the right way and give a quick smile or hug or even a hello to the other residents there, because a little love and caring goes a long way and in the end, you get what you give.

You can reach me by e-mailing me at jnrodgers@iendeavor.com.