1/27/2012 - Link
The Long GoodbyeAugustus Monroe figured he’d drop dead long before he’d need a nursing home. A decade later, his son considers the weighty financial and emotional costs that come with a parent’s immortality.
My partner’s grandfather spent about five years in a long goodbye. The first summer we were together, his grandfather’s electrolytes got out of wack and he started deteriorating. Two years after that he didn’t recognize his wife or kids and was moved to a nursing home where he spent the next two years.
The first time we him in the nursing home we told each other: “Baby, if it comes to that just let me go wander off and die. It’s ok. We had a good run.”
