Moment’s after each Super Bowl, a jubilant football player shouts, “I’m going to Disneyland!” Recently I had an opposite realization.
Open wide and listen
By
Gary Tetz
May 01, 2021
Aren’t you glad that when the survey team shows up at your long-term care facility, they don’t horizontally immobilize you, place an assortment of sharp tools in your mouth to prevent you from defending...
Things I Think: Save enough to get back home
By
Gary Tetz
Oct 07, 2022
I wanted so badly to keep going, to devote everything I had to my mission that day, and I felt like a complete failure when I turned around.
Things I Think: The lessons of autumn
By
Gary Tetz
Dec 05, 2019
Autumn is a time of change. That probably seems trite and obvious, and certainly it’s a trait shared by all the seasons, at least where I live in the Pacific Northwest. But the transitions of fall always...
Things I Think: Champions of change
By
Gary Tetz
Nov 02, 2018
In long-term care, massive change is always afoot. Whatever was true 20 minutes ago isn’t anymore, and the new normal will be an unrecognizable stranger by nightfall. But there’s one thing that hasn’t...
Celebrating new love
By
Gary Tetz
Jul 01, 2021
Weddings are always rich in symbolism, but one I attended on a sunny afternoon recently carried far more than usual.
Things I Think: Fall leads to a rebirth
By
Gary Tetz
Dec 05, 2018
For many of us, the transition from spring to fall brings melancholy and thinly-veiled fear — in life and in long-term care.
There’s no time to cry
By
Gary Tetz
Oct 01, 2021
If you’re close to my aging vintage, you remember those adorable pioneers on the TV show “Little House on the Prairie.” Now we’re living in their world. Menaced by fires, floods, climate change...
Mind over math
By
Gary Tetz
Dec 07, 2023
So here’s a frightening question: If these existential calculations are already taking over my life while I’m still working and living independently, how much more tyrannical will this mortality math...
Things I Think: A cow in every lobby
By
Gary Tetz
Sep 06, 2019
Every nursing home administrator probably has a favorite story of a resident whose state of health and happiness was transformed by experiencing the unconditional love of an animal. It’s universal, like...