{"id":3009,"date":"2023-12-01T09:00:49","date_gmt":"2023-12-01T09:00:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kangaroovalley.nsw.au\/valleyvoice\/?p=3009"},"modified":"2023-11-20T00:35:51","modified_gmt":"2023-11-20T00:35:51","slug":"not-dead-yet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kangaroovalley.nsw.au\/valleyvoice\/2023\/12\/01\/not-dead-yet\/","title":{"rendered":"Not Dead Yet"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><b>Not Dead Yet<br \/>\n<\/b><b>by Mark Fletcher<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In recent years the Voice has published a monthly article, appropriated from a variety of sources, which I thought might be of interest to older readers. From time to time, I\u2019ve also contributed to the Voice a review of a book which has made a strong &#8211; usually favourable &#8211; impression on me. This month I decided to combine the two.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Not Dead Yet<\/span><\/i> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">is an eclectic collection of short stories set in a nursing home\u2026 sorry, I mean an aged care facility. The author says he was prompted to write it following visits to his mother during her final year in care.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The stories feature many residents, and a few staff, of the one facility, so the reader has the chance to get to know them and their different takes on life in it. My emotional reaction to them fluctuated between heart-breaking and heart-warming &#8211; sometimes both in the one story.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I don\u2019t want to spoil your enjoyment, so I\u2019ll provide, in as few words as possible, a mere hint of the plots. If you feel even that is giving too much away, do skip everything between the lines.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">________________________________________________________________________<\/span><\/p>\n<p><i><\/i><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Residents confront the new manager.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Two octogenarians come out as gay.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A new resident\u2019s perspective.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A 79-year-old comedienne.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A resident makes weekly visits to a laundromat.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Putting a husband with dementias into care.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Registering protests on Twitter &#8211; <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"># Old People Vote<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Improving the food provided.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Letter to a teenage Japanese pen-pal.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">An outsider reads to a resident.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A church representative wants to visit residents.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Fairy bread for dinner.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The microwave is permanently set at tepid.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A family visit\u2026 or was it?<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Recycling gifts as a fundraiser.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Imaginary friendships.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A son\u2019s first &#8211; only? &#8211; visit.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">School students visit the closed facility.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Love across the ages.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">After two years of <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">#<\/span><\/i> <i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Old People Vote<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, the Minister visits.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A carer\u2019s thoughts.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Confessions.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Resident songs and poems.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">________________________________________________________________________<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">So, should these stories make you look forward to the prospect of aged care with enthusiasm, trepidation or dread? Do read the book and decide for yourself.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Tony Barnett<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Not Dead Yet by Mark Fletcher In recent years the Voice has published a monthly article, appropriated from a variety of sources, which I thought might be of interest to older readers. From time to time, I\u2019ve also contributed to the Voice a review of a book which has made a strong &#8211; usually favourable [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":3010,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[34,32],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3009","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community","category-seniors"],"acf":[],"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"Kangaroo Valley Voice","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/kangaroovalley.nsw.au\/valleyvoice","push-errors":false,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kangaroovalley.nsw.au\/valleyvoice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3009","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kangaroovalley.nsw.au\/valleyvoice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kangaroovalley.nsw.au\/valleyvoice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kangaroovalley.nsw.au\/valleyvoice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kangaroovalley.nsw.au\/valleyvoice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3009"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kangaroovalley.nsw.au\/valleyvoice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3009\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3011,"href":"https:\/\/kangaroovalley.nsw.au\/valleyvoice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3009\/revisions\/3011"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kangaroovalley.nsw.au\/valleyvoice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3010"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kangaroovalley.nsw.au\/valleyvoice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3009"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kangaroovalley.nsw.au\/valleyvoice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3009"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kangaroovalley.nsw.au\/valleyvoice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3009"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}