Getting older

One our neighbours, Rose, a woman in either her late seventies or eighties collapsed while out shopping at the grocery store. Fortunately the clerks at the store knew who she was. One of the clerks from the store was able to drive her car back to her house. Rose was taken to the hospital. As she lives alone one of her friends took her small dog to care for it.

I often saw Rose sitting in her backyard since her house and ours shares the same back lane. in 1991 when Kathleen and I moved into our home Rose had moved into her mother's house to care for her mother who was unable to live alone. Over the next few years her mother's health deteriorated until she had to be placed in a nursing home. Rose faithfully visited her mother over the next couple of years. We often talked as Rose loved sitting in her back yard to take in the sun. Beyond her mother she did not say much about her family. When her mother died I saw Rose less frequently. This Winter her car rarely moved from its parking place. It was not until this morning that I found out how much Rose's health had changed over the winter.

This morning I went to the garage to get the lawn mover out and mow the lawn. I watched a man carry a few boxes out from her house and place them in a truck. After I finished filling the mower with gas and had attached the grass catcher I went over to as him if he knew how Rose was doing. I found out that he was her brother. Rose was in the hospital doing fine. He was unsure if she would be able to return home. She would not be able to live alone. I asked him if her children knew their mother was in the hospital and I was told that the family did not know where her children were. Fortunately, after Rose had collapsed, one of the neighbours knew her sister's telephone number contacted her. The sister then contacted the brother.

Reading between the lines I was able to conclude that Rose had not been doing well for most of the winter. She had not been able to care for her house as she once had. The brother was busy cleaning up the hosuse and taking out many bags of trash to the truck to be taken to the dump. If Rose was having trouble, as evidenced by the deteriorating state of her house, why had her family not noticed and offered her help before her health deteriorated to the point she collapsed?

Our suburban neighbourhood was built during the late forties and early fifties and was intended for the many returning soldiers looking to start families. Many of these couples remained in he neighbourhood and are the original owners of the homes. Doing the math they are now in their late seventies/ early eighties. These seniors are beginning to sell and move out of the neighbourhood. Homes are "rolling over" from seniors to young families. Recently when taking a walk early one evening I noticed how many children I saw out playing. It was not all that long ago that one did not see many children in the neighbourhood. Another aspect of this "roll over" is seen in the large number of homes underging renovation as new families move in.

The changes in the neighbourhood leads me to reflect philosophically about what the future hold for each one of us. When advancing old age catches up with us, will we have been forgotten by family and friends as my neighbour was? How hard is it to move from a home lived in for many decades? New life is taking over from old which is good. When this change over from old to new occurs during the spring I find myself mourning the losses which occurs in order so that new life can take hold and thrive. It is like the Phoenix--through the flames of its death comes new life. I is a real joy to witness the renewal our neighbourhood has been undergoing for the past five or so years. It is sad that this joy comes at the expense of lives coming to their end stage. Couples moving from homes filled with a lifetime of memories. Wives or husbands loosing their spouse of many years. Joy and sadness; sadness and joy.