Amethyst
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
- Joined
- Dec 21, 2008
- Messages
- 12,709
Umm..I thought that was Aunt Grasshopper who was in the horrible unit? You described Aunt Ant's facility as "high cotton."
Oh well.
Oh well.
Yeah, first off, I openly admit its all me and my opinion, observation, and personal desires.
Aunt Ant had to work low-wage jobs until she was 80. The low wages combined with no spouse made it nearly impossible to save for retirement. Her last couple jobs were pure charity by her employer. A security guard. Picture an petite 80 year old security guard with nothing more than a whistle. At any rate, when she became unable to work due to the physical, schedule, and beginning onset of memory issues, she moved from a subsidized apartment to a fully funded government provided health facility.
I visited her at that facility. Judging by the asbestos tile floors used in supermarkets in the 1970's, I knew about how old the building was. All the tenants shared rooms. Some tenants shouted constantly asking for help or attention. (Almost like extreme variations of Turrets Syndrome) To escape this, roommates would hang out in the halls. Walking the narrow halls meant weaving through wheelchairs and gurneys. Noisy, echoing hallways. Due to the age of the building, floors, drafty windows, nothing ever looked clean. As I sat and talked to my Aunt, we reminisced about the old days. But, were constantly interrupted by door alarms that went off anytime a "memory" patient got too close to the door. Fire alarm volumes. This happened about every 10 minutes. The staff had to investigate every alarm, which meant you heard the piercing noise until they validated it was a false alarm and then, reset the door. I don't how people could work in that environment, much less live in that environment.
In a nut shell, this was my sampling of what you get when you don't plan and are 100% relying on the government to care for you.
So, now that I'm still working and in my early 50's, I want to plan for something better than what I observed. That's why I'm not ruling out any options (except maybe buying a Metlife plan....), but investigating everything.