Dear Editor:
To all my classmates and school chums and everyone else, how's your New Year's resolutions doing? Now I can't lie, I gave up making them, the years I forgot which ones I made seem to be upon me. Hope you're still remembering yours. Ha ha.
All joking aside, the issues of 2011 have a real heartache for our generations and those around us as the nursing home crisis is upon us and I think resolutions really need our attention. Everyone of us that can read and write. This is an aging society and I look around and think of those who are 80 are still going strong. Where will we be? So many of our friends are already ailing and require assistance, surely the powers of Sun Country can open up beds in Wawota and Carlyle. This is ridiculous, family members in Carlyle can't be near loved ones in Wawota, family seniors drive to Stoughton when Carlyle beds sit empty. Where did compassion go? Why did the beds close?
What may sound like common reason is NOT.
I firmly believe dollars in whose pocket many of these homes had hard earned money donated to the fundraising of these buildings and the interior necessities. The workers in these homes are angels who care for our loved one, but where does it say it takes X number of administrators to run the affairs of Sun Country? Surely the funds are available, the beds are a necessity. The promise was made many years ago when these facilities opened that our family members would be at home in their own communities, so we could be there to support them and assist these nursing homes.
So where is your voice in this matter? It is our families and friends who need the support, the communities who house these facilities also. It is a shame to know the beds are empty. We need a total re-alignment of the bed situation in nursing homes. Speak out! I'm not a brown envelope recipient, but that's not saying that I could need a bed tomorrow. It's our future as well.
Linda Aalbers
Manor, SK
