Last night I was watching ABC primetime show Family Secret about a woman who moved in with her son, Blaine 52, because of her Alzheimer disease and ended up being neglected by him. Lawanda is a 72 year old woman who has become apparent that she could no longer take care of herself. At one point she drove all the way from Texas to Las Vegas to see one of her sons. She got lost and ended up sleeping in her car for days. There were numerous times when she didn’t turn off the stove or wandered around the street. Blaine vowed not to let her living in a nursing home, so he took her under his roof. Blaine just got married to Georgia and has three grown children from his previous marriage.
It was very clear that Georgia was not ready to be put in this situation. She constantly complained about Blaine who she thought prioritized his mom more than he did to her. There was a scene where she said, “It would be nice if she could cook and clean for us”. Everytime Blaine was taking care of his mom whether it was as simple as serving dinner or getting her stuffs, Georgia always complains, “It would be nice if you do that to me too”. Well, he doesn’t need to do that to you because you have a healthy mind and body… moron!!
Blaine decided to use his mother’s $30,000.00 to build a house behind his thinking that he still can take care of her while getting her out of his wife’s sight. Sooner his visits became shorter and shorter and left Lawanda alone on most days. The family finally moved closer to Georgia’s family and Blaine rented an apartment two minutes away from his place. The apartment is right next to a highway and so secluded from everything else. He had a social service pick Lawanda up to spend a few hours at a nursing home where they serve lunch and she could hang out. Again, his visits became less and less frequent. There were times when Lawanda just wandered around the area all by herself. In the end, Lawanda’s sister, who just recovered from breast cancer, picked her up to live with her up until now. The relationship between Blaine and Lawanda was too damage that they haven’t seen each other since then. I still don’t understand why Blaine didn’t come and visit Lawanda at the sister’s. On the interview he promised he would see his mother and even said he loves her and the neglect wasn’t intentional. Lawanda kept on waiting and waiting on the day he promised to come, but he didn’t show up. For detail story please visit ABC News.
The sad thing about this whole situation is that it’s a very common problem here in the United States when parent becomes a burden to his/her children. On top of that, Lawanda was a very good and devoted mother. There is absolutely no reason that she deserves to be treated like this by her own children. Even if she ends up in a nursing home, what are the chances that her children will visit her? or invite her to come over for a holiday? I’ve read from various article that living in a nursing home sometimes feels like living in a prison, especially once your body and mind start to deteriorate.
One question I had in mind, what if that woman is me in fifty years?
