SOMETHING TO KEEP IN MIND

Sometimes, when we see older people, well, we don't REALLY see them.  If we're walking behind them, we speed past, fast, because they are holding us up with their slow and unsteady gait.  Or we grumble that they are taking too long to pay for their groceries if they are in front of us in line or any other number of instances.  I had an experience today that just broke my heart, because I witnessed a 95 year old woman (with dementia) being treated so abusively by her grown daughter.  The daughter even said, "People weren't meant to live this long!"  She pushed on her mother's face, as she tried to straighten her mother's leaning posture.  I was appalled!  The saddest part of the whole thing was looking at pictures of the elderly lady when she was young and vibrant.  OMG!!!  She was a stunner!!!  And a poet to boot, with a Ph.D!!  So, my plea here is that when you see an elderly person, male or female, who is only a shadow of his/her former self, please know that, once upon a time, he/she was young, vibrant, beautiful and/or handsome and, most likely, contributed to society in one way or another. A special mention of our vets, who are often cast aside as old men.  We've all seen photos of soldiers in uniform, so young and eager to fight for our freedoms, so proud.  And we were just as proud of them for doing so.  Well, we are now the future generations they were fighting for.  And they?  They are old, hard of hearing, several inches shorter, memories dimmed, health issues galore, but inside, they are still those young soldiers they were so many years ago.  Don't they still deserve the dignity and pride as old men that we gave them when they were young?  Remember this:  the elderly were once young.......and we, if we're lucky, will one day be elderly.