READER FEEDBACK
WHEN OUR WRITER KIRI TEN DOLLE PENNED A COLUMN ABOUT THE PERILS OF TAKING HER BABY SHOPPING LAST WEEK, READER MARYKE BARKER RESPONDED WITH HER EXPERIENCE
It’s 5pm in the middle of Aldi and my 97-year-old father loses one of his hearing aids. It is nowhere to be seen.
Awash with anxiety at the thought of absolutely no possibility of communicating the simplest of ideas, I spend 30 minutes pacing the aisle looking for our only lifesaver. We can’t forget it and buy a new one because, eew $6000.
But the audio shop is shut and by this stage Daddy Dearest is losing it, when finally I spot it under a shelf. Unable to reach it, and grateful no one has trodden on it, I turn around and right behind me in the special buys is a grip ‘n’ grab reacher. You wouldn’t read about it, until here. Crisis averted.
I’ll admit I used to cast a judging eye toward people who seemed impatient with their elderly charges in the supermarket. Now I salute them.
The thought of taking the elderly grocery shopping is enough to give anyone grey hairs on the spot. It is usually out of necessity. The pantry is as arid as the Sahara Desert. A 10-minute whiz becomes a 45-minute expedition with an elderly loved one in tow.
It takes a lot of cajoling and promises of coffee and muffin to reach the checkout.
The elderly will alter your shopping list, adding Metamucil and denture adhesive, and surprise you with chocolates, cakes and lollies in your trolley when you turn your back to grab a block of cheese.
Most days people can see me working the shelves with one hand, the other assisting in pushing the trolley so as not to demolish an entire shelf of rice thins on to the floor or maiming a passing shopper. No one has offered to push my trolley.
On another occasion, I did have a kindly person offer to pack my groceries into bags while the cashier was swiping cans of beans like a game of tennis and I raced off to intercept the elderly going through the exit doors with another family.
Another kind lady once saw me battling to fit the walker into the back seat of the car while hanging on to the wayward shopping trolley and weary cranky elderly and offered to hold the trolley for me. Those small gestures can restore my sanity.