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Old 02-04-2015, 10:15   #11
Margaret Pilkington
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Re: alternative care for elderly

Yes, that is exactly what I have been saying from the outset.....it can be done, but it has to be done with extreme care and with the perspective on the nature of the issues which can arise.....some of which I have outlined in an earlier post.
I know it can be done successfully because an elderly aunt of mine did exactly this.....she and her companion became firm friends.
They lived in companionship for more than 10 years....and the companion died first.....and my aunt was not long behind her having lived a miserable existence in a residential home(and I use the term 'home' in the loosest sense of the word)for the last months of her life.

The reason the situation worked well was that my aunt maintained a lot of independence....she continued to do what she could in the house.....The two old ladies went out shopping together, the arrangement was a partnership of equals....they did stuff together and it gave my aunt a new lease of life.
Where these two old ladies could have lived a miserable and lonely existence, they lived companionably, had someone to talk to, grumble to and they kept one another going.
But.....and it is a big but, it doesn't work for everyone.
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Last edited by Margaret Pilkington; 02-04-2015 at 10:20.
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