Personal Narrative: How My Grandma Changed My Perspective
Recently, a visit to see my grandma changed my perspective. This visit was the first time I saw my eighty-nine year-old grandmother in her new home, an assisted living facility. My grandmother was always a strong, independent woman. But now she can no longer live independently, due to her advanced age, and we have had to move her out of her home into an assisted living facility.
The facility that my grandmother lives in is rather innocent looking when you first glimpse it, but when you see the residents living inside, it changes your whole perspective. It is the mood of the residents which you sense, and their mood is morbidly depressing. All they do is sit around, lie in bed, or sleep. It feels as if the people that live there are simply waiting …show more content…
Personally, I shudder to think of losing my personal independence due to not fault of my own except for the inevitable aging process that occurs in everyone. It is as if you return to infancy whenever you grow old as bodily and mental functions regress, and your ability to care for yourself becomes non-existent. I would think that it feels like a punishment for growing old. This is a dilemma to me. With advancements in science and medicine most people do not suddenly die. Instead now people live for years with debility, dementia and, consequently, dependence. Science has made it possible for people to live longer but what an individual can do with those extra years is limited. They are not dying but they are living in bodies that no longer support them. Their world gets smaller and smaller. They go from a house to a room to a bed. This seems a rather harsh reality to me and it is not something that I want to face during the twilight years of my life.
Seeing my grandmother living in the assisted living facility has changed my perception of growing old. Extended life has been celebrated but now I do not see it as a joyous thing. Getting to live life until you are unable to live it seems like a depressing outcome. It has made me think do I really want to grow old to the point when I can no longer live independently. It has made me question if
The facility that my grandmother lives in is rather innocent looking when you first glimpse it, but when you see the residents living inside, it changes your whole perspective. It is the mood of the residents which you sense, and their mood is morbidly depressing. All they do is sit around, lie in bed, or sleep. It feels as if the people that live there are simply waiting …show more content…
Personally, I shudder to think of losing my personal independence due to not fault of my own except for the inevitable aging process that occurs in everyone. It is as if you return to infancy whenever you grow old as bodily and mental functions regress, and your ability to care for yourself becomes non-existent. I would think that it feels like a punishment for growing old. This is a dilemma to me. With advancements in science and medicine most people do not suddenly die. Instead now people live for years with debility, dementia and, consequently, dependence. Science has made it possible for people to live longer but what an individual can do with those extra years is limited. They are not dying but they are living in bodies that no longer support them. Their world gets smaller and smaller. They go from a house to a room to a bed. This seems a rather harsh reality to me and it is not something that I want to face during the twilight years of my life.
Seeing my grandmother living in the assisted living facility has changed my perception of growing old. Extended life has been celebrated but now I do not see it as a joyous thing. Getting to live life until you are unable to live it seems like a depressing outcome. It has made me think do I really want to grow old to the point when I can no longer live independently. It has made me question if