I read in another question that a lot of people were suggesting this as an act of kindness but how many people have actually done this and not for their own family members?
How many people have actually visited an old people’s home?
I read in another question that a lot of people were suggesting this as an act of kindness but how many people have actually done this and not for their own family members?
My mother made me do this when I was about 12 years old, along with my 2 brothers and 1 sister. We were seventh day adventists at the time (my mother and 1 sister still is) and my mother felt it was an appropriate way to fill in a Saturday (sabbath) afternoon. You can’t detect this while I am typing, but I am cringing whilst typing this - I hated the whole experience.
i did.
when I was in 7th grade our choir class went to the local home and sang Christmas songs- they sure appreciated us doing that alot, as most don’t have relatives that visit them at all.
I didn’t start going until my mother-in-law was in one.
But, after she died, I went back and visited the other people that were there, mainly because it was sad that nobody came to visit the majority of them, and I know how happy it made them to see somebody, anybody.
I too was “brought along” to visit the elderly in board and care homes. Some of the homes were small, just a few people, and some were quite large having 100 people. It was a strange experience for me as a group of us would sing, visit the elderly, and the smells and sickness and dying all around me got to me a bit.
However, as I grew older (not that much older), I found myself visiting once again a board and care facility where my grandma lived for 3 years until her death. The facility itself was like a second home, or second job to me. It was a far drive and I took my young son often with me as visiting there took on a new and different meaning. A much more positive meaning.
While the smells where there, the realities of life displayed much more vivid then other places in my life, I noticed that my visits to my grandma also brought joy to others as several other women thought I was their sons. Sadly, most of them had children who never visited them.
So, for those brief moments when I would hold their hands, help them to sit down, talk to them, get them something, it made all the difference in the world to those elderly, and yet cost me nothing, took nothing from me but a moment of time, and in return I was so blessed.
Over time I looked forward to visiting the board and care home and visited others as well. Sometimes my son and I would sing to the elderly, or just visit room to room smiling and saying hello. Many of the elderly would just lie there in pain and suffering moaning and crying.
However, my short visits with them put a sparkle in their eyes. and a smile on their faces. It’s hard to explain. But something inside me told me more people need to come there and visit these people as they are our grandparents, our parents, our uncles and aunts, our family, who spent their entire lives loving and caring for us.
My grandmother is gone now, and so is a few other members of my family, but all of them had spent time in a board and care home during their last few years of life. I’d like to think if that were me laying there dying, that my family would come to visit me as much as my family came to visit my grandma.
A Note to the other poster who’s mom took her to visit the elderly. I know it might have disgusted you some. But you will only know later the wonderful impact you made upon those elderly you visited. To them you brought them a smile, a happy thought, you took their thoughts of pain to a good place in their memories.
Your mother actually did a wonderful thing and she shared those moments of compassion and love and duty with you. You are a better person because of her.
I volunteered to help out in the residence section of the nursing home when I was a teenager. I would recommend it to everybody. It makes such a difference in both parties lives. Very enriching.
Cheers for Desert Cities!!! He hit the nail right on the head! Gets my vote for the best answer! Residents in “old people’s homes”, better known as Health Care Centers as not only elderly folks live there, need the interaction with younger people to stay healthy and focused, and they love it! (Health Care Centers are still called Nursing Homes in some areas as all ages of sick and disabled live in these facilities) My 99 yr old mom lives in a small one near me. She loves all the teens who either work there after school or volunteer on weekends. They are cheerful and bring alot of joy to the residents, some who don’t have families and grandkids nearby, or whose families have just forgotten about them, cuz it’s too much of a chore !(That just burns me up! Wait til THEY get elderly!!!)
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