My grandfather has moved into my mother’s house.
My grandfather is 95, and in ill health. His house is typical old New England architecture: small rooms and doorways, stairs everywhere, half a dozen stairs just to get into the house, no full bathroom on the first floor. He’s just been released from hospital and nursing home after nearly five full months, and it’s simply not practical to have him return to his house. If mom’s house weren’t empty I’m not sure where he would have gone.
Of course, if mom were here and healthy, she would be helping and she might have had some ideas of her own.
Mom’s house, while not exactly handicapped-friendly, is much easier to use than my grandfather’s house. There are only two short steps into the house. Everything is on one floor. One bathroom has a tub, one has a shower stall, so while I suspect he’ll be using the tub and a transfer bench, there are options. The rooms are larger, though the doorways are still narrow–too narrow for a standard wheelchair or walker.
A tiny bit of good has come of the horror of the past two years.
It doesn’t help.
