The Impala in the Bushes
The author relates the story of an aging woman named Jean Gavrilles to portray, through the collective imagery, the way that actions and events can inform a trained physician of the degenerative effects in cognition and motor skills functioning that are connected to the process of aging:
“The body’s decline creeps like a vine. Day to day, the changes can be imperceptible. You adapt. Then something happens that finally makes it clear that things are no longer the same. The falls didn’t do it. The car accident didn’t do it. Instead, it was a scam that did.”
Nursing Homes
The author provides a highly detailed overview of the history, ideology and psychology of the nursing home. The thrust of the analysis is that the emphasis has always been on the “nursing” part rather than making them seem like a real home:
“She visited a nursing home nearby. `It was actually one of the nicer ones,’ she said. `It was clean.’ But it was a nursing home. `You had the people in their wheelchairs all slumped over and lined up in the corridors. It was horrible.’ It was the sort of place, she said, that her father feared more than anything. `He did not want his life reduced to a bed, a dresser, a tiny TV, and half of a room with the curtain between him and someone else.’”
Choking
Anyone who spends any time at all in the company of the elderly will confirm a much higher incidence of episodes of choking than when around younger people. It is probably only natural to assume this is directed related to dental issues. Turns out that this is not the case:
“Both made a point of chewing slowly. She was the first to choke. It was the omelet. Her eyes watered. She began to cough. Felix guided her water glass to her mouth. She took a drink and managed to get the omelet down. `As you get older, the lordosis of your spine tips your head forward…So when you look straight ahead it’s like looking up at the ceiling for anyone else. Try to swallow while looking up: you’ll choke once in a while. The problem is common in the elderly. Listen.’ I realized that I could hear someone in the dining room choking on his food every minute or so."
Where We Die
One particularly striking image paints in bold, striking terms the way that the issue of death and dying was fundamentally transformed in the previous century. And those consequences of that transformation literally reach into every aspect of society, impacting myriad decisions on a daily basis for millions of people:
“As recently as 1945, most deaths occurred in the home. By the 1980s, just 17 percent did. Those who somehow did die at home likely died too suddenly to make it to the hospital—say, from a massive heart attack, stroke, or violent injury—or were too isolated to get somewhere that could provide help.”
