Boomers Unite

 

I've already written one post for today's blog but halfway through her more like three quarters the way through realized I cannot use it because of promises I made. So anyway luckily it's been an eventful day sad as it is. This was a unique day for me because one of the residents at this facility provided to me what I thought was a family function to celebrate 24 July. Of course is Utah and since the holiday falls on Sunday were celebrated on the 23^rd. We were to start around 10 AM and barbecue lunch. As far as I understood it was myself in this resident and whoever else she might have invited I wasn't sure what she had in mind. She did mention something about her family being there so I figured it was just a family function. Anyway, long story short there's some sort of family issue they didn't show up, the resident didn't like the barbecue because it was so filthy looking (the barbecue range) so we ended up cooking arts meat selections of our own little home and dragging it out to the common area for a little picnic just the 2 of us. But that's not what this posting is about.

This morning when I was out preparing for my part of the barbecue I ran into one of the other residents here at the complex who informed me that one of the long-term residents had passed away during the night. Of course I saw this person walking around yesterday but to be honest this person was very very frail and I'm not all that surprised. Which really very tragic/interesting is that her daughter had been living with her for the past couple of months that I'm aware of helping the mom get by. Had the daughter not been there I think mom what passed much earlier. This is the 2^nd resident to pass away in the last 3 weeks. Granted, this one was a little more expected them the prior but still the whole composition of this apartment complex is radically changing. The old guard is slipping away. There's still enough left of the older ones to make this place seem like a senior living project – – which it is – – but do you have to be a senior cliché to live here just because it's 55 and older? I don't know but something's happening. There's a group of fairly new apartment residents had gathered together daily out in the covered parking area to smoke. The rules of the project state you have to be at least 25 feet away from the doors. Like most groups of people in the world these days there are smokers and non-smokers and the smokers are always somewhat isolated and somewhat shunned. I've recently gotten to know this group of outcasts and find they are closer to my age than the other group of residents. They're kind of fun police to talk to which I have been in the afternoons. I'm wondering with this “pruning” of the population that even younger folks might join the ranks. I know there's a significant waiting list to get into this place but there's also a lot of other seniors here that are extremely frail I don't give a much more time. I should be careful what I write because you never know for whom the bells toll…