Time to say Good-bye

Time progresses so rapidly that I am surprised that it has been two weeks since my last post. Thus for some this may be a surprise, but to others- not. What it is is the last three days of my employment with my current employer.
It is time for me to move on. The irony is that I had been employed in skilled nursing facility, a nursing home, and it was implied that I was perhaps making too much money and too old for my position. Now that is irony.
I realize that change is good and in the long run this change is a positive one. I am moving to a new job in marketing at a large pharmaceutical company close to my home. I will not have to be on call 24/7 nor will I have to work weekends, nights and holidays. These are all pluses. Meeting new people and learning new things is exciting and I look forward to this opportunity. I will miss the people I have worked with and the residents I have come to know over the years.
My bride has created a calendar that is hanging on our refrigerator with the number of days remaining. I have three left.....
A warning for readers- I am setting up my soap box so if you continue beyond this point you do so willingly.... As a society we are wasting a precious commodity, one that is not buried under ground and needs mining. It is a commodity that is untapped and ready to be used- it is just waiting for the opportunity. I am speaking of our elderly. The government has placed an arbitrary age of retirement and after that the expectation is that the old will just fade away. In fact we build facilities to place our elderly in so that families don't have to take care of them and they don't need to be seen.
I have been blessed in having the opportunity to have seen family members take in their elderly. Not only have I been blessed but the relationship that developed between my children and an elderly grandparent is priceless. Each summer over the past 20 some years my children have spent their summer months in the care of their mother's parents. In so doing they have developed a respect for those that are older than they. They also have learned different skills in the time that was spent there. All of them learned the theater art being able to perform on stage in front of hundreds of people. They also learned how to work and live with others of different backgrounds- religious, racial, age, and geographical. My children are better human beings because of the time that was spent with their grandparents- it is a blessing that is priceless.
To often family members are placed in nursing homes and than forgotten. As they are forgotten they fade away. What is in them sometimes dies before their body does. As a society we have lost priceless history in institutionalizing our elderly. As an old person dies so goes the memories and stories that are waiting to be told that are within them. It is a loss.... it is our loss.

I'm off my soapbox now...jsf