I'm going to say some things about Portugal. If you're sick of me talking about Portugal, go ahead and click off now.
So, my next door neighbor, who is 88 and whom I dearly love, is now in a senior home. She has rheumatoid arthritis, and her son, who works full time, was checking on her 10 times a day and going over there in the middle of the night, etc. So he put her in a home on April 1. He was quite upset about making that choice.
I go to visit her there. Here is the deal. It's a 4-minute drive from the village. It's a beautiful big house on a hill with a view of the surrounding valleys and hills and villages that's heart- stopping. There are 13 people living there. There are three people there tending to these 13. (One day one of the workers brought her 3-year-old son to work with her. Just a thing that had to be done. Everyone was loving on the kid.) A doctor comes in regularly. They are given three meals and snacks. They sleep 3 to a room. They all know each other because they are all from nearby villages. When visitors come, they all double-cheek kiss every resident, and introduce themselves to their visitors (with double cheek kisses all around). Everyone sits together in the big living room, with this incredible view out the entire wall of one side of the room. (as an aside, a couple of people there were Blacks from Mozambique. This is a rural area in Central Portugal. They were treated with as much tenderness as anyone would be.) There's a big veranda, too. The people are all so nice and caring, I want to cry when I leave. I swear.
Yesterday, when my neighbor's sister and I were leaving to go back to the village, a young woman from Lisbon, who is the daughter of a woman in our village who was just visiting a friend at the home, wanted to take pictures of everyone on the veranda. She exchanged phone numbers with everyone and sent pics to all of us. She's probably in her late 30s.
The home costs about 800 to 1000 euros a month.
What does all this tell you about Portugal?
This is what it tells me (things I have learned over and over): There is an incredible sense of community and welcoming here. Age and race do not divide people here. People aren't trying to get rich off of providing services. Human interactions are more important than all that other shit we fill our time with.
At one point, after a visit, I thought, I wonder if these carers turn into monsters when everyone leaves. And then I remembered they are all Portuguese. No Muricans in sight. There's just no chance of that. LOL
My neighbor's son, still stressing over the choice he made, wanted to know if I thought the home was alright. I decided not to burden him with my making a comparison to a US facility. Instead I just told him I thought it was beautiful.
So, my next door neighbor, who is 88 and whom I dearly love, is now in a senior home. She has rheumatoid arthritis, and her son, who works full time, was checking on her 10 times a day and going over there in the middle of the night, etc. So he put her in a home on April 1. He was quite upset about making that choice.
I go to visit her there. Here is the deal. It's a 4-minute drive from the village. It's a beautiful big house on a hill with a view of the surrounding valleys and hills and villages that's heart- stopping. There are 13 people living there. There are three people there tending to these 13. (One day one of the workers brought her 3-year-old son to work with her. Just a thing that had to be done. Everyone was loving on the kid.) A doctor comes in regularly. They are given three meals and snacks. They sleep 3 to a room. They all know each other because they are all from nearby villages. When visitors come, they all double-cheek kiss every resident, and introduce themselves to their visitors (with double cheek kisses all around). Everyone sits together in the big living room, with this incredible view out the entire wall of one side of the room. (as an aside, a couple of people there were Blacks from Mozambique. This is a rural area in Central Portugal. They were treated with as much tenderness as anyone would be.) There's a big veranda, too. The people are all so nice and caring, I want to cry when I leave. I swear.
Yesterday, when my neighbor's sister and I were leaving to go back to the village, a young woman from Lisbon, who is the daughter of a woman in our village who was just visiting a friend at the home, wanted to take pictures of everyone on the veranda. She exchanged phone numbers with everyone and sent pics to all of us. She's probably in her late 30s.
The home costs about 800 to 1000 euros a month.
What does all this tell you about Portugal?
This is what it tells me (things I have learned over and over): There is an incredible sense of community and welcoming here. Age and race do not divide people here. People aren't trying to get rich off of providing services. Human interactions are more important than all that other shit we fill our time with.
At one point, after a visit, I thought, I wonder if these carers turn into monsters when everyone leaves. And then I remembered they are all Portuguese. No Muricans in sight. There's just no chance of that. LOL
My neighbor's son, still stressing over the choice he made, wanted to know if I thought the home was alright. I decided not to burden him with my making a comparison to a US facility. Instead I just told him I thought it was beautiful.
