A few ringgit and change
IFIGURE that the Irish poet and writer, Oscar Wilde, was bang on when he said that youth is wasted on the young. At the tender age of 75, I was having the time of my life. Alice and I were getting closer all the time, and the loneliness I had felt since my wife died was beginning to disappear.
Alice was spending a lot more time at my house. That was great, except that she was also beginning to notice a number of things around the house that she wanted to change. She isn’t pushy, but she’s straight up and, when something is on her mind, it’s on her lips soon enough. She had attended a workshop on how to make a home safer for older people, and I guess I was her first experiment.
At first I wasn’t too comfortable with the idea of making changes. Maybe I was more set in my ways than I thought. Or perhaps I figured that altering the place would somehow be disloyal to the memory of my wife.
I resisted. Alice persisted. One day, she presented me with a list of the changes she wanted to make – a phone in the bedroom, better lighting on the stairs, a handrail along the hallway and down the couple of steps of my split-level house, and grab bars and non-slip mats in the bathroom.
I guess I kind of tried to put it off. But that didn’t deter her.
The fact is, the changes she wanted to make were all changes to make the house safer – the phone in the bedroom in case of an emergency, better lighting on the stairs so we wouldn’t slip or miss a step, that sort of thing.
Alice was doing what I hadn’t found the courage to – admitting that we were getting older and that we should accommodate the change.
The modifications were easy. And not too expensive. A few ringgit here, a few ringgit there. And I felt better when things were safer and more comfortable around the house. I even made a few changes of my own, including better lighting in the studio where I do my woodwork. Now I can see the mistakes I’m making!
Another change for the better ...
Next week: Your slip is showing! INJURIES are responsible for the discomfort, hospitalisation, disabilities, institutionalisation and even death of many Malaysians in their senior years. A great number of these injuries are preventable and measures to prevent them should be the concern of health practitioners, governments and communities everywhere.
Today we continue our series of 12 illustrated stories which follows the whimsical romance of two active seniors who, through lack of prevention, end up in awkward situations and almost miss their rendezvous with love.
The series offers insight into some of the personal preventive measures seniors can take to make their environment safer.
It was produced by Health Canada to promote a greater awareness of injury prevention for seniors and has been adapted to the Malaysian context by consultant geriatrician Professor Dr Philip Poi.