Stop Making Jokes About the Older Population!

About twenty years ago, I knew a man in his early forties who facetiously referred to his church as “the Geritol Church of God” because most members were over sixty. However, the majority of these people were relatively healthy and active.

This man was in a one-vehicle accident that damaged some of his internal organs. He never recovered and died a few months after the accident at forty-four. Ironically, all the senior citizens who were a part of his church outlived him. Some of those individuals are still living today.

I knew a healthy seventeen-year-old girl around the same time who was critically injured in a car accident involving a garbage truck. The young lady was hospitalized for several months and was sadly left with permanent brain damage.

I know of a healthy twenty-one-year-old Amish man who fell off the roof of a house and was left paralyzed from the waist down.

I have cared for older adults in their homes and facilities for the past fourteen years. Many of these people were incontinent and needed someone to clean and change them.

I’ve heard people make jokes about older adults “having to have their diapers changed,” as though it could never happen to them! This way of thinking is extremely foolish. The above examples are a reminder that both temporary and permanent disabilities can occur at any age and without warning.

I have also heard people jokingly say things about older adults, such as, “They have one foot in the grave.” The first example I gave above is a reminder that death does not discriminate. None of us are promised another minute in this life.

Anytime I hear someone make cruel jokes about the older population, I will always gently but firmly remind them that this life is uncertain. None of us is guaranteed one more minute of a healthy body or life.