Geezers...do you hear me? This post is not funny. It is important. Pay attention!
Geezers we are old. While we have all sorts of living arrangements, sometimes geezers live alone. For the most part, that works. But there are times when being alone is not a good thing. My uncle lived by himself, and he never felt alone. He had friends and family nearby. So living alone is not a bad thing, but when something happens to a singleton geezer, is there a parachute for help?
We're old--we fall. Falling is so much easier than getting up. If you can, crawl to a chair and try to prop yourself up. BUT what happens if you can't crawl. My brother was fixing his gutters, when he fell from the ladder. In pain, he inched his way into his house and called 911. He had broken his hip. Why did he not have his cellphone with him? Don't get into that bind. Geezers need to keep their cellphone on their bodies all the time. We need to have 911 on speed dial. Hi-tech Geezers can tell Siri or Alexa to call 911 too. It is not overkill to call 911 if you are flat on your back or twisted in a heap and you can barely move. KEEP THAT CELLPHONE on your body. Put it in a pocket. Put it in a pouch or purse around your neck. Have it available. The nice folks at 911 will come to your rescue. There is a catch, the 911 folks need to be able to get inside your house.
That leads to another issue. Your door has to be unlocked. If the door is locked, there's no way helpers can get inside without breaking a window. We need a safe and secure way for emergency folks to get inside our houses if there is a problem. In many cities the fire department will install a keyless lockbox on your house, for free. Your key fits inside the lockbox that can only be opened by emergency personnel. My good friend Jill had one installed on her house, and it worked. She tripped on a throw rug, and hit her head on the island countertop. She was on the floor, head bleeding yet she had enough sense left to call 911. The EMTs were able to get inside her house and take her to the hospital only because she had an EMT lockbox on her door. Find out about that lockbox before you fall.
Geezers can also get a button to wear around their necks. When a problem happens, all the geezer has to do is press that button. This usually works very well. My dad had a "LifeLock" button and he used it wrong, and it still worked. He would press his button every day and have a nice conversation with Patricia. They became "button friends." I have no idea where Patricia was located but she answered the button call every day and she and my dad would have a nice long chat. Patricia had a kind voice and a patient ear and my dad was a great story teller. The people who provided the button did not seem to mind that my dad called Patricia everyday. It worked. One day my dad did not call. Patricia was worried and called the local EMTs. He had fallen down and knocked himself out. He was waking up when the EMTs came in the front door. The button had worked in reverse...but it worked.
Sometimes the geezer is home alone, and because he's alone he has not put on his hearing aids. This happened to us. I was away and my flight home had been changed to a much later time. I needed to call my husband to tell him NOT to pick me up at the arranged time. I rang his cell phone and texted him repeatedly, but he did not reply. I was getting worried as soon he would be leaving for the airport and I needed to tell him not to. I had an inspiration. I called my wonderful neighbor and told her the code that opened the garage door. From there she walked into the house and got his attention. My dear geezer husband said he did not think there was a reason to wear his hearing aids if no one was around. He was wrong. Plan ahead and wear your hearing aids.
The bottom line geezers: Have a plan. KNOW what you are going to do if something ugly happens. We are geezers...ugly will happen. Have your cellphone handy all the time. Wear your hearing aids all the time. Get a "help" button necklace. Get a keyless lockbox for emergency personnel. None of these things are hard to do, the hard part is doing them. We're all in this together.
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