Here’s a question that just popped unwelcome into my idle mind. When time taps me on the shoulder and beckons toward a long-term care facility, what should I pack?
Grateful? Make a list
By
Gary Tetz
Sep 02, 2021
While walking reluctantly into our place of long-term care employment yesterday, a colleague and I started talking sarcastically about how delighted we were to be alive and at work. We didn’t mean a...
After the train
By
Gary Tetz
Jul 08, 2021
There’s a hopeful phrase we started hearing a lot from long-term care leaders, residents and staff when the vaccines first arrived—“a light at the end of the tunnel.” Invariably some wise-guy or...
Awake for a cure
By
Gary Tetz
Mar 08, 2018
At this point in the search for a cure for Alzheimer’s, each glimmer of hope seems to come with a looming cloud of probable disappointment — and the question, “Will I get it someday?”...
Left with the geraniums
By
Gary Tetz
Sep 24, 2015
Some things probably shouldn’t require a law. Kittens shouldn’t be water-boarded. Toddlers shouldn’t have to work in coal mines, at least not in the dark or winter. Seniors in long-term...
Every breath you take
By
Gary Tetz
May 05, 2022
As pandemic testing becomes more sophisticated, a creepy song from the ’80s takes on new and ominous relevance. “Every breath you take I’ll be watching you,” warned The Police, and now that an...
Just a box
By
Gary Tetz
Dec 18, 2020
It’s just a box. Not that different from the one that will probably show up on your doorstep or mine today, maybe stuffed with holiday gifts or toilet paper. So why am I feeling a little choked up standing...
If pigs could fly
By
Gary Tetz
Apr 06, 2017
Forget all the bad news of late. It doesn’t matter. Not now that pig bladder has been found to hold healing promise for diabetic foot ulcers.
Senior sex — the lethal irony
By
Gary Tetz
Sep 08, 2016
Of all the forces in the universe, I fear irony the most. It’s lethal, and is eventually going to find and destroy me.
Spring up, down or sideways
By
Gary Tetz
Mar 10, 2016
Benjamin Franklin didn’t work in long-term care. Look it up. It’s a historical fact. If he had, his hair-brained daylight saving scheme never would have seen the light of day.