The Way I see it, AGE is an honour and older persons must be well taken care of.
By .Curtis Morton
The month of October, significantly saw the annual special tributes being paid to our senior citizens and rightly so, as they have been the trend setters and the trail blazers for us to lead dignified lives in this modern era.
This week, I pay special tribute to all of our seniors and can’t help but to be acutely reminded that I am now an ‘orphan’ as both of my parents, of blessed memory, have already passed on.
I especially salute the latest centenarian in the federation of St.Kitts and Nevis, Mrs. Mary Browne of River Path who at age 100, on Tuesday 1st of November, threaded a needle in my presence and in the presence of many other witnesses and read from a fairly small print bible, Psalm 92 and listen this: WITHOUT THE AID OF EYE GLASSES!.
Now I am not ashamed to say that I am much younger but that I may have had difficulty seeing the needle, much less that tiny hole.
Well I newa!
At my age, I don’t wear glasses regularly, but I do use glasses when I am typing, as I am doing now, or reading anything with fine print.
She is special!
I also want to salute the way that her family looks out for her. To a man; to a woman; children; grandchildren; goodu great grand….all of them are head over heels in looking out for the matriarch of the family.
That is what family ought to be like and by extension, we should also look out for the seniors within our various neighbourhoods. We should make a concerted effort to seek out those who live alone. Find out if they are having regular meals; if their house needs a little cleaning; if their yards can do with a brush up.
Oh yes, I know that the Government employs some diligent Care givers, but they do not visit these people every day and there are things that may be missed. Therefore we must look out for them and help, whenever we can.
I remember, many moons ago, as a young Public Health Inspector, I was doing some routine visits in a particular village (which will not be named, for the purposes of this class) and I came across an elderly, bed-ridden man. His bed was in one state of disrepair, to the point that the springs were showing through the mattress and he had a bowl of what was supposed to be soup, on the bed near to him, which smelt sour.
You know how soup smells when it is left at room temperature for an extended period?
I asked him why he still had the soup and if he intended to eat it. He told me that he had it since two days prior but as he was not sure when he will get a next meal, he was ‘picking at it.’
I immediately contacted my good friend Nurse Daniel and she did some necessary health checks and we went and got some food for the man.
I went further and discovered his nearest relative, who happened to be a granddaughter and she stated bluntly that she was not going to help him, because God is now punishing him for the way he used to beat up her mother, when he was young and strong.
Well I newa!
Long story short, between Nurse Daniel and myself, we managed to secure a room for him at the then ‘Poor house,’ now the majestic Flambuoyant Senior Citizens home, where he lived peacefully and in much better conditions until he passed.
My dear readers, we ought not to be judge and jury here. The older persons will face God’s eternal wrath, if they die with unconfessed sins, as we will too.
But for now, our sacred responsibility is to look out for and care for them as much as we can.
In so doing, we will be honouring God.
That’s the way I see it. How do you see it?