Oh Shucks I'm 70 and in a Retirement Home

By Margareth Ralph

As I say in my books, let me go ahead of you and fall into all the pitfalls that there may be and after much considering, I decided to try out 10 Old Age Homes, Retirement Centres and places that house the Elderly. Going into the first place was nerve wracking, scary as they did have a room for me but I was put into the room while the body of an elderly man, still lay waiting for the funeral home, to fetch. If I had never given over to the unknown, this was the day that I gave over without a fight. It was a home that took in any Elderly and was affordable for many. No lights at night, were at the order of the day. It was when the Management found out that I was allergic to Soya, that I was banned from all meals for the month. I was allowed to fill 2 bottles of water daily and it came in handy,  since I had paid for food for the month but this was now denied. Ten days on my knees with 2 bottles of water a day, left me hairless and my skin hung like a giant coat on a hanger around me. Yours truelly was determined to show this Management a thing. I was not going to die and I was too broke to not take the challenge. On completing my time as soonest, they also forced me to stay an extra month or to pay for it.  At this home my heart cringed when my gaze lingered toolong on the emaciated faces. And yes, I reported it to authorities, who found the manager at her best behaviour and accused me of being Neurologically imbalanced. When going to a new place that the Elderly stay at, the abuse that was being done to people shocked me but the victimising ones always made sure that they were covered and no clues could be found. This negative and disrespect that was aimed at the ones who bent over backwards for their children, to make the lives of them, better. Today I have seen many Elderly dropped off at Old Age Homes and left to die. 

But it' not all bad news, go with me on holiday to the seaside,where my arthritic body, took a sudden run down dunes and could not stop until I lay face down in the sea. To crown it all, our bodies, it has just been discovered, makes changes around 70, making one feel young again. These changes being to steer us into the final curtain. At round 70 our bodies regenerate and kick in new hormones and cells for the next lap. Today at round 70 life throws one a pep pill and the ones that were put off work to sit on the porch to retire, receive a new regenerating of the body and people wonder what to do with it all, now they are not needed anymore. 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Margareth Ralph
• Release date: Sep 21, 2023
• ISBN: 9798223829249

Book preview

OH SHUCKS! I'M 70

AND IN A HOME

MARGARETH RALPH

Copyright © 2012 Margareth Ralph

All rights reserved.

ISBN:

ISBN-13: 979

DEDICATION

Dedicated to all who have suffered in the hands of Bullies

CONTENTS

Catalog

1 broken trust..........................................1

2 Oh, I love to be Beside the seaside...........................9

3 camera’s and watching us................................16

4 off grid living.........................................26

5 fighting is useless......................................36

6 Retirement Homes.....................................49

7 an appeal to children....................................56

8 tough love or abuse.....................................65

9 a lotta  lovin’.........................................83

10 keeping your sanity....................................86

11 the elderly act........................................91

ABOUT THE AUTHOR..................................94

Other books by this Author................................95

Connect with Margareth Ralph.............................96

1 broken trust

H aving witnessed, how some Old Age Homes, manipulate and pull the wool over people’s eyes, was a shocker! But witnessing, how little, the life of an Elderly can mean to some, threw me. The ones that assure our families, to trust the Matron, Caregiver, or Manager’s word that is believed, above the word of the very tenant, by even our children. And as the Matron of one Home assured me, Trust me! She started a rumour, a lie, that could strip any Elderly, sane person, of their confidence. And this all, to get control over them. Exposing them as Enemy number 1. In my instance, Matron wrote into my personal file for all staff to see. She is a dangerous Schizophrenic person and all must stay away from her!" This manner of treatment and diagnosis, I have seen take place in a few Homes, while gathering information, for this book. This ruining of respect for the Elderly tenant, would play her or him, the innocent tenant, right into the hands of the bullies, the cruel Office temp, needing to show, she might not be pretty or educated or refined but her cruelty, that looks like authority, will do the trick better than even the Manager of the Home,can handle the job.  And the bullies that were ready and waiting for the smell of fresh blood, would have a feast on one that was only needing acceptance and love. Let me expose the truth about being 70 and life in most Homes while miracles in our bodies and minds were taking place!

When having decided to write this book, I thought it was going to be something like a holiday romance, among the happily, retired one’s in Homes. It actually turned out to be an undercover, murder story. Having been a very happy, carefree person, I never dreamed, what a nightmare, lay ahead for me, in the Seven years of research. In most of my books, I have assured you my reader, that I lay me down for you and while experiencing pitfalls, into the holes on my way, you will be forewarned of these. Now, I that was Seven years younger, when enthusiastically starting on this book, assure you Seven years later, that this book changed my life forever! With broken trust in the human being, even my now aged looks, hides the hardship and sadness of life.

While positively thinking that this book, would help me find my final curtain, a resting place, in God’s waiting room, I now stand before you, assuring you, that you are making a mistake by ripping your parents, from a loving family environment and placing them into a slaughterhouse. After being exposed, my baggage now, consists of a mistrust in humanity, the deceit being done to the Elderly, the manipulation for control and that, over frail souls, the very one's who made life, so much easier, for you. This book, I pray will make you realize, how precious your loved one’s are. Just maybe, children then, will keep their families rather together in their own loving environment. And just this decision, could extend the lives of precious grandparents and parents.

The changes in the bodies and emotion's at round Seventy of our Elder’s, might look to some, as them, being difficult but these Elderly, who put up with children's teething and having been ill, many times, even seeing children through puberty, with its hormonal changes, body and cell growth, are deserving of respect and Empathy! My path had been the same as yours, that we consider a normal one. We, being beautiful and gentle souls, on our different ways of the walk, while doing the best we could, to survive and walk the road, we did it!  From a womans point of view we can say, after having raised children, a husband and many dogs and cats, that we are still alive by some miracle. And men can witness in a joke, that married life was some times tough but they too made it, I, woman alone, ended up, in a Retirement Home. This final curtain that is supposed to be loving and peaceful, the Gods waiting room, final curtain, turned out to be a tragic one. As if the adjustment of leaving memories of our homes, gardens and husbands behind, our soul screamed, no begged, to live rather with the children. Wanting to still be a part of the only thing we knew, a stable environment, filled with love, trust and family, I mean, that’s all we, the Elderly  actually know. But for the sugar coated reasons of, When Elderly need friends, around one! or We’re scaling down! or Something might happen to us, then we need help, we want to move into a Home.

Moving into a Retirement Home, is sugar coated with reasons for specofoc reasons. But do we consider, where would the right home be, if not in our very own space, where loving family surrounded us with love and protection? We are not supposed to settle for the prettiest place, to make the best of our Final curtain but pretty helps. Once settled in the Home, we soothe ourselves, saying that, We are, where we are because we are God’s Creation and are walking a path of learning experiences and now in God's Waiting Room. But our psyche does demand to know, Why all the knowledge, if we are just going to die and find ourselves sitting at peaceful hills, while singing. We suppress this because for now we are clutching at every straw! The answers are there but at this confusing moment of giving up our lives and venturing into the unknown at round Sixty or Seventy, we have to sugar coat it all, just to survive, until we are sure.

Being an earthling, a hopefully, accurately diagnosed, normal human being, that was moved into the Retirement Home, with stars in my confused gaze, awoke in my Third year in the Home, offcourse without the stars anymore. The gentle soul that once was, had shrunk in size, and that by a third. How can one now in God’s Waiting Room, survive on food portions, that Retirement Homes, still need to make a profit on. After all, Homes are now a days treated like just another business. Having learned by now, that Retirement Home living, is tough, unless one can stand your ground, attacking the Bully back. Remember the school Bullies? They have not changed one bit, only upgraded to meet you right back in Retirement Homes. It is recommended that by the time you land up in a Retirement Home, you have been doing body building and your thighs and upper legs, are the size of the Winning Body Builders, and pray your arms match. Don’t worry if you are a woman and your breasts have disappeared, with body building because now at last, your stomach and breasts, don’t need to compete anymore and things in the body, are all totally relaxed in any case.

By my Third year in a Home, Without wincing I could stand before you and announce that lifes a  bitch! After meeting up with the school bully and she had again given me unnecessary grief, I must admit though, that the weak me of Three years passed, was ready to stand for my rights, as an Elderly. The beautiful and gentle soul, that once there was, had made way for the real me, the one, I should have been Seventy Four years ago. What helped, was knowing that Karma is alive and well but as real, as life itself. Learning now that we have walked the path, as we are supposed to, and there is no way, we could have changed a thing, about life. We wonder though, why we have chosen to stay in a mean Old Age Home, where Maslows law of hierarchy, is still intact, feeding the Bullies gang. While in the Home, we learned with time, that after having been messed over, once too many, a new you, a pillar of strength, has popped out. As for the ones we call Bullies, they are just Karmics being give another bash at the hash ups they had made. And now understanding this, we see the Bully from a different view and while he or she is doing the exact same hash ups with their second chance, we observe their actions as we would a move.

The biggest surprise to us all, round Seventy is that the body now is making or has made changes, regenerating the organs, the body and brain. Not a minute too soon did this happen because if this change had happened around Twenty Seven and  my husband arrived home, inebriated, I with body builder legs and arms, could have, when he stepped closer to beat me up, with those thighs being mine, like a body builder, I would have stood up to him and said, Enough is enough and tonight, it's your turn, with love from me! Then if and when, while being younger and stronger, with them thighs playing their part, I could have the d given him a good hiding while he lay across my lapa. Probably, would have ended up in a jail but with the luck I had, karma would then, not have been on my side and the Jail butches would have gotten to me. Oh Lordy, heaven forbid! Well, that proves the moral of the story that our paths are laid out like they are, for a specific reason. Understanding this now clearly, I, a Free Spirit, am Seventy Four, still alive, built for speed with thin legs and run from trouble.

The changes in the outer body at round Seventy, are not what we had on our wish list but the inner changes, that the body makes at round 70, are really, really, something. And because we have turned Seventy, the positive changes in our bodies and genes, prove that the Government made the worst decision when they forced retirement, into being. Retirement was brought in for the simple reason of giving the younger one’s a chance, at having a job. But surely, if they had started up flee markets or online jobs, we could have progressed, so much faster and we all, even the Elderly, would have been in jobs and content. We, the Elderly, were aborted when they forced us to stop work. That after having years of hands on experience and still the body mind and emotions were all regenerating. With the many years of experience and knowledge that we have built up, we had to then, end up sitting on the porch. What a waste! And so I repeat. Just when we had the ultimate amount of knowledge, we were retired. For most, it was a big adjustment, for some, the adjustment was so big, that they gave up the ghost, as soonest. While not blaming Wifey, who was irritated by hubby then, being home and interfering with everything, even knowing now, until what time she sleeps, everyday but I was just pondering as some on Porches sat and idled in old age, considering whether to live or die, the body had burst out like peach trees, with new life. At round Seventy, the cells, genes and brain, burst forth with life. For that matter, the cells that