Jul 11, 2026
It wasn’t the first time he had gone with my wife to visit her brother in a Rehabilitation Center- that’s the newest, kindest, less shocking word for a nursing home. It’s not a pleasant place to visit, and it certainly does nothing for one’s mood afterward. Eating a pleasant lunch or running a few errands on the way home seems pointless. Their spirits have slipped into the reality that this could be their future, existing in a similar setting with other older people in that end-of-life environment. Will their children visit and try to cheer them up, or will they come by a few times a year out of guilt? The man is not sure he can return, but his wife is a few years younger than he is, and driving a two-hundred-mile round trip by herself is not an option.I’m reminded of the Traveling Wilburys song, with Roy Orbison’s rocking chair moving as his cherished guitar sits in the chair instead of the recently departed Roy. No one wants a preview of the end of the line.