I recollect this incident that happened when I was a teenager. A visit to the Home for the Aged. A school trip, which at that time did not hold the significance it should have. Had I made my visit more recently I would have known the pain and suffering that these old people endure.
There were men and women, some young and some so old that they could barely walk. Only they could relate to the joy they felt on seeing us. Unknown school kids. Somebody?s children! And yet it brought both tears of joy and sadness to these old people. The Circle of Life goes on.
Parents nurture and love their children. They give them all that they can to keep their children happy. Every couple dreams of giving their children the best of what they as children did not receive. Many sacrifice their hopes and wishes, their wants and desires only to be able to bring a smile to the little ones. We children grow up under the loving care and protection of our parents. We have rebelled, yes at times, but at the end of it all we get our way through and win over our parents.
So many times we overlook the sacrifices, compromises that our parents have done for us and console ourselves with the thought that “Oh it is their duty as parents to nourish and give and keep on giving?” Yes, that giving never ends. The children grow up to be adults and move on with their lives. Leaving behind a forgotten era. Very rarely do we come across people that stay together with their parents. The number of Home for the Aged institutes has almost tripled in the last 20 to 25 years. Why? What is the reason behind this? Why do we blame “Generation Gaps”, “21st Century”, and “Change of Times” for all this?
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…Many sacrifice their hopes and wishes, their wants and desires only to be able to bring a smile to the little ones…
If our parents were to think of us the same way that we think of them when they are old and if they had dumped us in some “Home for the Kids” only because they cannot handle our tantrums and cannot afford to have us around, where and what would we become today? Imagine seeing our parents once a week, once a month, once a year and then not seeing them at all. Imagine our parents sending money to the institute for our daily needs. Nobody to love us. Nobody to cuddle us. Nobody to correct us when we would do wrong.
Someday even we shall be old and aged. What if our children treat us the way we treated our parents? The very thought frightens me. I am not ready to be treated like that. I don?t want to be forgotten and die alone. I want to be with all those whom I love in the last years of my life. I want to be loved and remembered by all those whom I shall leave behind. I would want to die a graceful death with my loved ones by my side. I don’t want to die alone on the street or in some “Home for the aged”.
Author: Ramona Pereira- UAE
