Exercise While You Sleep

I was walking down the hall of the dementia unit in the nursing home where I contract services. About ten of the residents were sitting around in a circle with one of the recreation workers, doing some exercises. Except for Mrs. M- who was sitting there sleeping.

I tapped her on the shoulder as I passed, and whispered, "Mrs. M- , you're sleeping."

Her head popped up, she turned around to look at me, and she said indignantly, "No I'm not, I'm doing it my way."

A Man Died Leaving Four Elderly Wives

You should have seen the shocked looks on all of our faces when we heard that sentence during a session at the Canadian Centre for Elder Law Studies' conference on October 29 -30.

Of course, the speaker was Nigerian, and he was speaking about Nigeria, where having more than one wife is, apparently, common.

The Conference, the Centre's first , was an international forum and an excellent one to discuss the issues, and compare the state of elderlaw across North American and around the world. It was great to see and hear the progress people are making and directions being taken to support older people. Much discussion centred on abuse, capability, rights, and services.

Yours truly (Diamond Geriatrics, Inc. that is) was very proud to support the Conference by being an exhibitor.

So I began to wonder how one would do marital counselling between a husband, and say five or ten wives........