With each facility tour you give and prospective admission you consider, never forget that families like mine, whose hearts are breaking, cling desperately to every word and promise.
The invisible heroes
By
Gary Tetz
Dec 04, 2015
They were seniors, so I suppose they were used to being invisible. They were also veterans — a double-whammy. Add in the fact that most were from long-term care settings, and you have the perfect storm....
Embracing the now
By
Gary Tetz
Nov 01, 2020
It’s one of the most ubiquitous laments of the pandemic, how time passes in a shapeless blur. “Sunrise, sunset. Swiftly flow the days,” goes the song from the musical “Fiddler on the Roof.” And...
Molalla on her mind
By
Gary Tetz
Sep 05, 2018
You wouldn’t have seen any flashing lights or scurrying EMTs, but it was still a major crisis. The nursing home resident was completely out of his favorite pickles, and not just any variety would...
At last, a wisp of hope
By
Gary Tetz
Dec 01, 2020
Gather around, dearly beloved long-term care people. Let’s have a little talk. I’m looking at all of you, in every facility role — the whole heroic and beautiful group. We’ll meet in the parking...
Raging against reality
By
Gary Tetz
Mar 02, 2020
If I needed an object lesson in why seniors, long-term care providers and actually, all humans, seem to have such difficulty facing the inevitability of change, I got it recently — in the men’s wear...
Get up and get ready
By
Gary Tetz
Oct 01, 2014
If you’re looking for an inspirational nugget to share at stand-up tomorrow morning, I might just have something for you.
Playing it forward
By
Gary Tetz
Nov 01, 2013
It wasn’t expected. He just up and died. One day he was happily walking the Earth with the rest of us, the next he was gone. I barely knew him and don’t know the back-story, just that it happened...
Prodigies in reverse
By
Gary Tetz
Dec 01, 2013
I experienced many crushing disappointments growing up. A trespassing fairy with a tooth fetish didn’t leave a dime under my pillow? Ernie and Bert aren’t brothers? Affordable healthcare isn’t...
Things I Think: Opera’s resonance
By
Gary Tetz
Nov 14, 2019
How can listening to opera possibly improve the cognitive function of dementia patients? Notice I didn’t ask whether. According to McKnight’s, Chinese researchers are proving the point, and who am...