The problems of growing older, which we are all going to face one day in our, near or, far, future, and, there's just, no way that we can, equip our homes with these needed things, off of the Front Page Sections, translated…
The years, turned the farthest to nearest, and the nearest to the, farthest.
A professor of mine who was in his nineties, had originally been very healthy, used his cane, gotten him all over the places. But the cold fronts that came before the New Year's, he'd had a minor, stroke.
His daughter rushed back from the U.S. They'd been separated for long, and now, they live, next room to each other.
As the professor became immobile, the bathroom needs to allow for the convenience of a wheelchair. There was, originally an elevated eleven-centimeter height, with the floor board of seven centimeters up. The daughter found the handyman, and leveled the frame of the door to seven, which is the same as the height of the floor in the bathroom.
But how would the man, get over these, seven centimeters in his wheelchair?
I'd helped my professor to search for a ramp on line, the height ranges from three to nineteen centimeters, and fitted for both indoors and out, with the words, "Safe Passage" on them. It's just, that the width of these boards are only, fifty centimeters, and the wheelchair's, the bath chairs widths, both, sixty. "Buy two of them, and, saw the extra off?", the daughter suggested. "but, you can't tie the two together that they stay together, as the wheelchair goes across, the shorter one is bound to slide to the side," I'd told.
And so, I'd found a carpenter to custom make one. "It will take me three days", the carpenter told me, "can you put a rush on it?", I'd pleaded. Seeing how his shop was stacked with other things he needed to get finished with, although I'd not felt right, rushing him, I'd still told him, "an elder couldn't get bathed for too many days already, and it's around the New Year's, and the weather's heated up."
Within three day's time, in the evenings, I'd made my way to the carpenter's, surprised to see that the ramp was already finished and on the table! "It was late, so I didn't call you," he'd told. Of course I didn't mind, I'd, picked it up gladly.
The size was just right, the work, perfectly done, but, I'd not predicted, that there was a wall that's right in front of the bathroom that the wheelchair couldn't go in in the front, that the chair had to slide sideways to enter. And now, a ramp wouldn't be enough. "I'm so sorry", the daughter was apologetic for not letting me know this, and I was beating myself, for missing the forest for the trees. She'd told me, "let's just use the washboard as a ramp for now."
And, with the ramp, and the sliding plastic washboard, the wheelchair bumped into the bathroom. And, my professor had gotten a good wash of his hair in the sink, for the very first time after his stroke. The sink, was so close within reach before the New Year's, but, after the New Year's, it was, miles out. And that sink, became a wishing fountain, and it'd, fulfilled the wish of a daughter.
I'd gone back to the carpenter, to find a piece of wood that can replace the washboard. It was, next to impossible to perfectly match the board in size, width, with the original ramp, we only want the board to be sturdy enough, that it doesn't move as the wheels of the wheelchair slide across it.
how these sorts of already-made ramps aren't available for people to purchase as they need in this country...photo from online
The road to rehabilitation is long and winding, and, there are, bound to be bumps on it. And, how much can seven-centimeters make up for, so long as the wheelchair didn't bump around too much, it's, a win for us.
After the second board was received, my professor was finally able to get into his own bathroom for a bath.
The years, it's a friend who can, get on bad terms with us. It'd been friends with us for many a years, slowly, offering the intelligence, the connections, the money to us, so we can, solve the problems in our, lives, but, in an instant, it can, take all the capabilities away. It'd allowed us to travel far and wide, to all the places, and in the end, it'd, prevent us from getting our most basic needs of going to the toilets, getting a bath or a shower.
I stood outside the carpenter's shop, with a piece of board that's not right in size, thought about my instructor when he was younger, when I was, a child. Forty years, it was only, an, instant it seemed. Although I'd not had a conversation with him since a long, long time, but it'd felt, that I'm, so very, close to him. So close, that we're only, seven centimeters, apart.
And so, this is the distance, of the handicapped person between where they need to, go, and even in their own homes, they can't, get the needed amenities, because, of how everything is, custom made, and everything is needed right now, and, these things takes time to get made, and, there's just, NO prediction of what will happen in our futures, and so, there's, no complete ways of preparing for these inconveniences of our, elderly, years…and, we can only, live with this, difficulty in our lives, when we age.
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