{"id":8012,"date":"2022-09-07T06:18:54","date_gmt":"2022-09-07T13:18:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/?p=8012"},"modified":"2022-09-07T06:18:54","modified_gmt":"2022-09-07T13:18:54","slug":"in-the-lobby-of-the-assisted-living-center","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/meditations\/in-the-lobby-of-the-assisted-living-center\/","title":{"rendered":"In the Lobby of the Assisted Living Center"},"content":{"rendered":"<!--themify_builder_content-->\n<div id=\"themify_builder_content-8012\" data-postid=\"8012\" class=\"themify_builder_content themify_builder_content-8012 themify_builder tf_clear\">\n    <\/div>\n<!--\/themify_builder_content-->\n\n\n<p>Eight elderly people were arrayed around the lobby of an assisted living center. They were in wheelchairs or walkers. Some were on phones or tablets. Some stared straight ahead. A nature show played silently on a monitor. The resident waited for rides and visitations and something I couldn&#8217;t figure out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I sat in the lobby waiting to tour the facility. I had bicycled there in 90-degree heat and soaked my dress shirt in the process. I had arrived 20 minutes early to get the lay of the land. I wanted to observe residents and staff before the tour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>My visit was precipitated in haste after Dad fell twice in the house in the space of a week. We got lucky he didn&#8217;t seriously injure himself. Our mutual living arrangement was no longer sustainable. I had to get proactive and not reactive regarding his care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>My mind raced with thoughts:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Is this the right thing to do?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The right place?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It was nearby. We could still watch <em>Perry Mason<\/em> every morning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I&#8217;m totally exhausted like I have never been before.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>What&#8217;s my future?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>What happens when I&#8217;m old? Hart&#8217;s Cove or Otter Point here I come!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>How long would Dad last in this place?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The marketing manager came up to me and introduced herself. Off we went. The dining room was first. We looked around. We sat down at a table and we went through all the particulars. They were daunting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>After that, we checked out apartments.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Eight elderly people were arrayed around the lobby of an assisted living center. They were in wheelchairs or walkers. Some were on phones or tablets. Some stared straight ahead. A nature show played silently on a monitor. The resident waited for rides and visitations and something I couldn&#8217;t figure out. I sat in the lobby [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8013,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8012","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-meditations","has-post-title","has-post-date","has-post-category","has-post-tag","has-post-comment","has-post-author",""],"builder_content":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8012","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8012"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8012\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8015,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8012\/revisions\/8015"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8013"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8012"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8012"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8012"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}