My mom said that her best nurses were from cultures that genuinely do respect older generations. Male or female, they seem to offer the a level of empathy, care and understanding the patients deserve.

Treatment of bed sores? It was a slap on the ass with medicine for some people, but some nurses understood that they were caring for an actual individual lives that a long, full life and this is where they were? Being abused by 25-year-olds with little patience? I loved those people. I was allowed to sit on the side of a man's bed and read him basically all of one of the Peanuts comics anthology books for no reason. I thought he might like it, I'm sure he didn't but he sure loved having me there.

I remember when I was like 12, because I moved to South Carolina when I was around that age, a man whispered if it was okay for us to try to go to the bathroom alone. He just wanted to do it for himself but I knew that I wasn't allowed to let that happen. So I told my mom that I was going to pretend that he was going on his own but I wanted a nurse right outside the door. He did get to the toilet. He was so proud of himself! He yelled through the door that he was going to sit down to pee, and "that wasn't wrong". I yelled back that it wasn't wrong! It was safe and I was proud of him. Again my mom was a nurse, so I knew what to say. He did eventually end up needing help getting up off of the toilet that I couldn't offer, and he would never have asked me to give him. Before anyone makes any jokes about the infirm, consider how you would like to be treated, and viewed after a lifetime of sacrifice, hard-working, love. Would you like to be treated like a child because your body doesn't work the way that it should anymore?