No place for old people

Many years ago, I delivered our local morning paper for additional income. My last stop was a nursing home. On average, I had ten daily subscribers.

Nearly every month, I would get at least one customer service note to cancel a subscription at the nursing home. Canceled subscriptions from the nursing home often meant that a resident had died.

There were times when I felt moments of sadness because I memorized the names of my nursing home customers. Although I didn’t know them, I knew their names. One day they were there and the next they were replaced by another subscriber.

To me the newspaper was just a paper; to the residents...it was more.

The nursing home residents looked forward to their daily paper. It was their main source to the outside world because they didn't have the Internet or other technology.

To residents in a nursing facility, newspapers, and meal trays are a way of life.

Many residents know the nursing home is where they will die.

Residents were once soldiers, attorneys, parents, and friends. Now they are clutching a newspaper and waiting for death.

I have heard people express fears of getting old.

Does anyone think nursing home residents envisioned themselves living in a facility when they were young?

I hear people say they would never live in nursing home. They believe nursing homes are a place for old people waiting to die. 

Youth is reduced to a memory.

We don't know what the future offers. Our health may decline to the point where we will eventually have to move into a nursing facility.