Once a soldier…..

See Also;
Warning, Warning, Warning! Veterans Beware!

In Memoriam and Inspiration: ‘She Worked Past Age 100, Inspired Many More’

In 40 years of interviews as a journalist, I’ve never met anyone quite like Hedda Bolgar.

The pioneering psychoanalyst, who attended lectures by  Sigmund Freud as a young woman and fled Vienna for the United States when the Third Reich entered Austria, was teaching and seeing patients at the age of 99 when she told me:”I’m so far behind, I can never die.”

Three years later, the Brentwood resident was still a working therapist at age 102, when she received an Outstanding Oldest Worker Award in the nation’s capital. When I called to congratulate her, she talked about a lecture she was preparing, among other projects she was juggling.

Several of the therapist’s friends contacted me Monday[May 13] with the news that Bolgar, who once told me she didn’t fear death but didn’t want it to be too “undignified or painful,” died peacefully [that] morning in the home where she dazzled me with her intellect, spunk and grace.

“It’s probably not a coincidence that she held on to life until Mother’s Day, as she was indeed the mother of a generation of psychologists, psychoanalysts, and an entire community of mental health workers and patients,” said Janet Woznica, a longtime friend and director of the Los Angeles Institute and Society for Psychoanalytic Studies.

Full Article and Source:
Steve Lopez:  She Worked Past Age 100, Inspired Many More

Happy Mother’s Day

Missing our Mothers lost or isolated from us…….

Note: We do not know the origin of this picture but would be happy to give credit to that person if anyone knows who it is!

The Forgotten Ones: Compassion for the Elderly

Walk into any nursing home today, and you’ll see them: The aging lonely. They are easily recognizable. Look for the sadness on their faces, the pain in their eyes. With a television on for company, these men and women sit alone in their rooms. Their shelves are bare, their bulletin boards void of pictures, cards, or any memento denoting love from the outside. Those sad eyes may even hold a twinge of bitterness, asking, “Why am I still here with no one to love me?”
~ by Karrie Osborn

What are we waiting for? The time to help is now. ♥

Source:
Facebook:  The Forgotten Ones:  Compassion for the Elderly

The Forgotten Ones: Compassion for the Elderly

A pessimist, they say, sees a glass of water as being half empty; an optimist sees the same glass as half full. But a giving person sees a glass of water and starts looking for someone who might be thirsty. ~ G. Donald Gale

*Please volunteer to visit the lonely and forgotten elderly in your community. ♥

Source:
Facebook:  The Forgotten Ones:  Compassion for the Elderly

Compassion for the Elderly: The Forgotten Ones

Many elderly people in cities, live alone, with their windows sealed or nailed shut because they are so afraid of crime-afraid that someone will break in, and they will be defenseless.   So many are poor and sick, hardly able to care for themselves, with no family or friends, and are often dealing with some level of confusion or dementia. When the elderly die, they usually die alone, just as they have lived in their later years. Sometimes they die at home alone, and sometimes they die in hospitals, or nursing homes. It is such a tragic end for a person who has given so much of their lifetime to others, and yet, when it is their time to depart, there is no one to be there for them. Many times their bodies are not discovered for a long time, because no one cares, or notices that they are missing.

They are sometimes referred to as “elder orphans.”
 
There is so much isolation in today’s society. In a 2004 issue of Geriatric Times, Bruce G. Rosenthal, of the American Homes and Services for the Aging, commented, “As many as 60% of nursing home residents have no regular visitors.”

Many older people have experienced multiple bereavements as well. Those with dementia or cognitive impairment can’t manage the grief process as a healthy person would. They may even forget their loved ones are gone, and wake up each day searching for them. Even for the elderly with good mental function, often clinical depression sets in, and there is insomnia, weight loss, poor nutrition, and withdrawal. They don’t usually ask for help, or reach out to others.

It makes me angry that older people are in such horrible situations. All of my life, I have loved the elderly. Perhaps it is because I was raised by by grandparents (alongside my mom) until I was 7. But now that I am caring for my mom, who is widowed, aging, and very ill, I can’t imagine her having to face her difficult situation alone. And I can’t help but wonder how many people there are like her,or in much worse condition, who are sick, frail, and totally alone.

* The lonely and forgotten elderly need us so desperately. They sit, crying and alone, with broken hearts, and no hope. No one visits them. They need our love…our touch…our warm smiles. Please be there for those who have no one. ♥

 ~ by Lonnette Harrel

Source:
Facebook – Compassion for the Elderly – The Forgotten Ones

The Forgotten Ones: Compassion for the Elderly

A little girl asked me once why children were adopted but no body adopted old people? I could not answer her question. I just cried and told her it was sad wasn’t it? We held hands and I told her maybe if we just volunteered it would help.  ♥
~ Barbara Taylor Vaughan

Source:  The Forgotten Ones:  Compassion for the Elderly

The Forgotten Ones: Compassion for the Elderly

“Sometimes I just have to cry in my bed at night. You know, so nobody knows. I try to keep up a brave face, but sometimes I just have to cry.” ~ A nursing home resident

Please call your local nursing home and volunteer to visit a lonely and forgotten resident. Your love may be the only love they receive. ♥

Source:
The Forgotten Ones: Compassion for the Elderly

The Forgotten Ones: Compassion for the Elderly

“Animals help patients keep their mind off their problems,” says Jean S. Uehl, the director of nurses. “The love the patients get from the animals is unconditional.” One particular stroke patient was withdrawn and rarely smiled, until she began to play with the resident cat. The patient and the cat became closely bonded to each other, and when the cat had kittens, “they became like the patient’s babies,” according to Uehl.

The kittens played and slept on a tray on the resident’s wheelchair and slept in a chair near her bed whenever they could. The kittens brought the resident out of her shell and she began to talk and smile. “The kittens in particular get all the residents’ attention,” says Uehl. “Everyone always wants to know where they’re at and what they’re doing.” When there are kittens in the building, a number of residents stay busy all day, following them, playing with them, and keeping an eye on them. ~ From HealthyPet.com

Consider taking your pet to visit residents at a nursing home or an elderly neighbor. They do NOT have to be registered therapy animals. Call your l ocal nursing homes and ask about their policies. Usually only updated shots are required for your pet. Don’t have a pet? Go hold a residents hand instead. ♥

Source:
Facebook – The Forgotten Ones: Compassion for the Elderly

The Forgotten Ones: Compassion for the Elderly

” I am the one no one wants, like a stray cat or an orphaned child.”

~ A nursing home resident

*Please volunteer to visit our lonely and forgotten elderly. ♥

Source:
The Forgotten Ones: Compassion for the Elderly