Being Mortal

Gerasim’s strength and vitality did not mortify but soothed him. This simple but profound service—to grasp a fading man’s needfo ...

But a distressing thing happened along the way. The concept of assisted living became so popular that developers began slapping ...

privacy andsufficient services toallow frailpeople to remain in residence. Theidea of assisted living as an alternativetonursing ...

Wilson spends much of her time back in the West Virginia coal counties around where she was born—places like Boone and Mingo and ...

spaciousapartments.Itseemedinvitingandprofessional. Shelleylikeditfromthefirstvisit.ButLouresisted.He looked around and saw not ...

maybestartabookclub.Butbah,likethatwasgoingto help. WhatbotheredShelleymostwashowlittlecuriositythe staff members seemed to have ...

Compoundingmatters, we haveno goodmetrics for a place’ssuccessinassistingpeopletolive.Bycontrast,we haveverypreciseratingsforhea ...

arethingsthatwewouldadamantlyopposeforourselves because they would infringe upon our sense of self.” Sheputssomeoftheblameonthee ...

BetweenthethreedaysinShelley’shomeeachweekand the pieces of a life Lou put together the rest of the week—the assisted living hom ...

But,shesaid,asshewalkedoutoftheplaceshethought, “ThisiswhatIhavetodo.”Awfulasitseemed,itwas where she had to put him. Why, I ask ...

5 •A Better Life In1991,inthetinytownofNewBerlin,inupstateNew York,ayoungphysiciannamedBillThomasperformed anexperiment.Hedidn’t ...

and tests and changing their medications. But, after several weeks of investigations and alterations, he’d accomplished littleex ...

askedfor,andhedidn’thesitatetotellthemso.Today, we’d diagnose him as having Oppositional Defiant Disorder. In the 1970s, they ju ...

was for him. He ended up becoming Cortland’s first student to get into Harvard Medical School. HelovedHarvard.Hecouldhavegonethe ...

eachdirection.Helikedtheself-sufficiency—pitchinghis tent inrandom orchardsand fields alongtheroad and findingfood wherever he c ...

FROMTHEFIRSTdayonthejob,hefeltthestarkcontrast between the giddy, thriving abundance of life that he experienced on his farm and ...

Thomas’s new idea seemed in line with past improvements.Sotheleadershipteamsatdowntogether to write the application for the inno ...

aroundtheidea.WhenIspoketohimnotlongago,he still recalled the scene vividly. Thedirectorofnursing,LoisGreising,wassittinginthe r ...

Isaid thatthecodesaysclearly,“Nobirds allowedin nursing homes.” He said, “But what about birds?” I said, “Whataboutbirds?” Hesai ...

in a house that has two dogs and four cats and one hundred birds?” And he said, “No, but wouldn’t it be worth trying?” Now that’ ...