That is such a good idea! I actually know a guy that supplies plushies for the little claw machines a lot of restaurants and bars local to me have. I thought I would reach out to him but this is also a good way to get that started! Thank you so much!! I know it sounds really dumb, but I'm really excited about this, and it's giving me something to focus on and care about outside of work in my own personal issues. A way to give back to people who have given so much to us.

My mom said that her best nurses were from cultures that genuinely do respect older generations. Male or female, they seem to offer the a level of empathy, care and understanding the patients deserve.

Treatment of bed sores? It was a slap on the ass with medicine for some people, but some nurses understood that they were caring for an actual individual lives that a long, full life and this is where they were? Being abused by 25-year-olds with little patience? I loved those people. I was allowed to sit on the side of a man's bed and read him basically all of one of the Peanuts comics anthology books for no reason. I thought he might like it, I'm sure he didn't but he sure loved having me there.

I remember when I was like 12, because I moved to South Carolina when I was around that age, a man whispered if it was okay for us to try to go to the bathroom alone. He just wanted to do it for himself but I knew that I wasn't allowed to let that happen. So I told my mom that I was going to pretend that he was going on his own but I wanted a nurse right outside the door. He did get to the toilet. He was so proud of himself! He yelled through the door that he was going to sit down to pee, and "that wasn't wrong". I yelled back that it wasn't wrong! It was safe and I was proud of him. Again my mom was a nurse, so I knew what to say. He did eventually end up needing help getting up off of the toilet that I couldn't offer, and he would never have asked me to give him. Before anyone makes any jokes about the infirm, consider how you would like to be treated, and viewed after a lifetime of sacrifice, hard-working, love. Would you like to be treated like a child because your body doesn't work the way that it should anymore?

I remember walking around and just popping into rooms and saying hi. Some patients were more ornery than others, so I knew where to actually come in and spend time. Coming in to just let them be. I was a kid. It's not my place. But oh my gosh the time I would spend with the average patient was weird for me, and amazing for them. Old people smell will be smashed into my brain until I am an old person (willing that I get there!). People forget that elderly people are just humans who lived longer than they used to. They're special and important and have lots of things to tell us if we listen.

What are you on about!? I would say it has a lot more to do with people that are not able to leave the home because of medical issues. This issue is firmly in the hands of a community that doesn't value our older generations. They may not think the way that we do, and they may be kind of hard to deal with sometimes, with issues like dementia, Alzheimer's and generalized anxiety that comes from pain and aging. Those people can't get out by themselves, even if you put them on a bus. People need to VISIT those lonely people. They are people. They are lonely, but they're also confused and require medical attention almost all the time. Putting them on the goddamn bus wouldn't help.

This post hit me right where it hurts. My mom worked at nursing homes when I was growing up, and and got a job at the one my great grandma was at, on a different Wing because I don't think she was allowed to be on my g-grandmother's. I didn't live with her, but when she would come and spend time with me at my grandparents house, she was always so hurt by how lonely everyone was. Sometimes she would pick me up and bring me to work with her for 3 or 4 hours and just have me go say "hi". Of all the issues that our seniors have in care homes, loneliness should never be one of them. It is, in my opinion, the greatest of their concerns.

Holy crap. I can do this. I can make this happen within my society, and I think I'm going to try to. By next christmas, I'm going to make this happen, or partner with people in my area that are already doing it. This is such an amazing idea. It's so simple and sweet, and we should all be supportive of it.