Aging in place is the best option for normally healthy seniors who are capable of performing usual of household activities with minimal assistance. It’s the nature of our universe. Energy starts manifesting itself in a person when he’s born. He grows tremendously for a period of time and then starts to depreciate gradually at a relatively slower rate at the end. When a person is old, it just means that his body isn’t capable of withholding the energy of life anymore.
The energy left in their bodies is so ready to leave it and go back to its source to become complete again and manifest itself in a new creature. Everyone thinks the same exactly. It’s like they copied the same horrible ideas and pasted them onto different bodies. They don’t have my respect. They’re barely individuals.
Mr. Arnold was sitting in the kitchen with a cup of tea and was looking thoughtfully out the window. Occasionally he’d look at the wall clock and sigh sadly dissatisfied with what he was seeing. The old man was sad because his son Jack, and his daughter in law, Cheryl, were staying late at work. This wasn’t the first time it happened, and thus Mr.
Arnold was getting suspicious. Nevertheless, Jack and Cheryl always had a compelling and logical explanation for their late arrival. According to spouses, there was a lot of work at the company, so they had to stay at the office and work overtime. But Mr. Ireland didn’t buy it.
The elderly man believed that his son and daughter in law were deliberately avoiding him. He thought that they simply didn’t want to spend time with the emaciated, sick old man who was forced to ask his relatives for help because of his frailty fact was that Mr. Arnold used to live on his own in a small house outside the city. Just a year ago, the old man in a garden and a lawn, which he always kept in impeccable order, even despite his age. His wife died a long time ago, and the man was used to dealing with this problem on his own.
His life was fine until an unfortunate incident happened. One day Mr. Arnold went out grocery shopping and a fire broke out in his old house. Unfortunately, the fire was impossible to notice in time, and thus, in what seemed like a blink of an eye, the entire building was engulfed in flames. It’s hard to say what exactly caused the fire, but the firefighters who arrived at the scene kept saying that it must have been a short circuit in the electrical wiring.
By the time Mr. Arnold, laden with grocery bags, got back to the house, all that was left of it were smoke and embers. When the old man saw what happened to his home, his hands unclenched and the groceries fell to the ground. Mr. Arnold was so shocked by what he saw that he immediately felt sick and fainted.
The ambulance that arrived at the call took the old man to the hospital, where he was diagnosed with a stroke. Losing his home came as a hard blow for Mr. Arnold and turned out to be very difficult for the man to get over. Unfortunately, the stroke caused temporary paralysis of the limbs, which was an even bigger problem than losing his house. Few people knew that more than anything in his life, Mr.
Arnold didn’t want to impose on the family of his son, who moved him into his home as soon as he heard the diagnosis son, you should have just left me at the hospital or sent me to some kind of Hospice. Why would you want such a burden in your life? The old man would say. He’d keep Jack from seeing tears well up in his eyes, but Jack didn’t want to hear any of it. He loved his father, and despite his diagnosis, both Jack and his wife were willing to take care of Mr.
Arnold. Several months passed, thanks to the competent treatment and Mr. Arnold’s strong desire to get better movement slowly returned to his previous immobilized body. At first, all he could do was wiggle his fingers and toes, and then, inspired by his success, he eventually began to move his limbs, and the day when he finally managed to get out of bed on his own was probably one of the most important days of his life. It was then that the old man got set in the idea that he had to move out of his son’s home and go live in a nursing home instead.
Moreover, an elderly neighbor there added fuel to the fire. She kept telling Mr. Arnold about her son and daughter in law, who allegedly wanted to get rid of her as soon as possible and were simply waiting for the right moment. They criticized me all the time, you know, I put the cup down the wrong way. I woke up too early and then woke everyone else up.
It’s an awful way to live your life, so every day I just sit and wait for them to send me off to a nursing home, the woman confided in her neighbor, looking sadly into his eyes. These conversations obviously caused Mr. Arnold to feel bad for the rest of the day. Moreover, the old man saw that Jack and Cheryl had become more secretive recently, and for some reason he didn’t know. They started staying late at work, only returning home after dark.
They must be disgusted with me. That’s why they stay away from me and they’re too cowardly to tell me the truth, thought Mr. Arnold, waiting for the couple to return home. Jack and Cheryl were gone for a long time, and when the front door finally opened, the old man shocked the couple with his noose right there in the doorway. My darlings, I thought and decided that I don’t want to burden you.
So I have one request. Please let me do a nursing home. I beg of you. Jack and Cheryl looked at each other anxiously and then lowered their eyes in embarrassment. Well, it looks like I’ve hit the Bull’s eye with my request.
Just look at them. Lowering their eyes, the old man thought bitterly, but to his surprise, Jack took his hand and said, dad, let’s talk about this later, okay? Now is not the right time for this conversation. Mr. Arnold shrugged his shoulders indifferently, making it clear with his whole appearance that he wasn’t going to change his mind under any circumstances.
The rest of the evening was rather uncomfortable, as everyone was feeling tense. Jack and Cheryl were both silent, each buried in their laptops. In the meantime, Mr. Arnold was eager to build on his success, so he kept talking enthusiastically about how good the nursing home would be for him. Of course, deep down, he didn’t actually want to part with his son’s family, but on the other hand, he was afraid to be an inconvenience to his relatives.
Therefore, the old man decided to be Proactive, initiating his move to the nursing home to prove that his intentions were serious. Mr. Arnold even packed a suitcase so that he could be ready for the move at any time. But time went by, and for some reason, Jack and his wife were in no hurry to fulfill their promise and return to the conversation about sending Mr. Arnold to the nursing home.
Eventually, the old man got obsessive over this thought, so much so that he couldn’t find peace of mind or calm down. Mr. Arnold hoped that they’d let him work in the garden at the nursing home and maybe even plant some seeds and mow the lawn. The old man was very proud of the garden he used to keep at the back of his old house. Several weeks later, Jack finally informed his father that he could begin preparation to move to the nursing home.
So the defining moment has come, thought Mr. Arnold with a tinge of sadness. But then he accidentally noticed Cheryl putting a set of new bedding into a plastic bag. Shuffling the soles of his shoes, Mr. Arnold went out on the street, where the first thing he did was say goodbye to this neighbour, informing her that he was moving to a nursing home.
The old woman nodded her head understandingly, muttering that all children are the same, they’re just trying to get rid of their old parents as soon as possible. The next morning, the whole family woke up earlier than usual. After a quick breakfast, Jack and Cheryl loaded Mr. Arnold’s belongings into the trunk of their car and put him in the back seat. Casting a last sad look at his son’s house, the old man quietly brushed off a tear that was rolling down his cheek and closed the door.
Throughout the entire journey, Mr. Arnold kept looking out the window, trying not to miss the moment when the nursing home would appear in view. However, to Mr. Arnold’s surprise, Jack suddenly turned to a painfully familiar street. The old man tensed up noticeably and when his son stopped his car right in front of his old house, Mr.
Arnold almost fainted. Afraid that his eyes were failing him. The old man began to rub them in disbelief, trying to make sure that he was seeing right. But no matter what he did, what he was seeing didn’t change. The old man opened the door and got out of the car with tears in his eyes.
On the side of his burned down house, there was now a freshly painted house. Mr. Arnold carefully opened the gate and went into the yard, which was full of various construction materials. Looking at the excited Jack and Cheryl, the old man understood everything without words. As it turned out, the spouse’s long absences and late nights at work were all due to the fact that they were working on building the new house for Mr.
Arnold. Some things they did on their own, other things were done by the construction crew. To say that the old man was happy would be the understatement of the year. All this time, Mr. Arnold thought that his family was looking for an excuse to send him off to a nursing home.
Realizing how wrong he was, the old man hugged his son and daughter in law. Thank you, my darlings. This is the best gift anyone has ever given to me, Mr. Jack whispered through tears. Jack and Cheryl only smiled in response and then helped the old man get unpacked and put everything in order around the house.
It was then that the new set of bedding came in handy. Thoughtfully brought by the old man’s daughter in law to make his new bed. Now, thanks to the efforts of his family, Mr. Arnold was back to living in his old home and feeling like an independent person and a member of a great family. Mr.
Arnold also learned that his son’s elderly neighbor was never offended by anyone and no one was planning on kicking her out into the street. In fact, the old woman has lived in that building since it was built and was simply coming up with all sorts of conspiracy theories because of her loneliness and boredom.
This way, the elderly woman wanted to get other people to feel sorry for her and to pay more attention to her. Mr. Arnold now realized that he shouldn’t have listened to the speculations of other people but should have drawn his own conclusions.