Wednesday, April 11, 2007

Painting post: Sandhya Ragam



Excerpted from the American Association of Homes and Services for the Aging (aahsa)

- By 2026, the population of Americans ages 65 and older will double to 71.5 million and about 12 million older Americans will need long-term care.
- In the next 8 years, the number of Americans ages 85 and older will increase by 40%.
- Among people turning 65 today, 69 percent will need some form of long-term care
- There are more than 1.9 million nursing home residents in the United States. This represents less than 6% of the total number of Americans over the age of 65. It suggests that the vast majority of elderly will most likely spend their final years in their community residence.


I did not want to do a Debbie, but sometimes statistics wake us up to reality…

I am sure that I will see a lot of colleagues in my generation go through the assisted living / nursing home circuit. Sometimes I think that the term assisted living makes fun of old people the same way some refer euphemistically to short people as vertically challenged...

Luckily the oldest member in our family does not need to go through the assisted living route. Various members of our extended family take turns looking after her. She may be the last of a breed that have the privilege to be taken care of by their families. I painted this from a color photograph that I took of her after she had kindly agreed to pose for me.

Title: “Sandhya Ragam”*
Size: 2.5 ft X 2 ft (30 inches X 24 inches)
Medium: Oil on canvas

*'Sandhya Ragam' literally translated is a Malayalam word for evening melody.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

To age can be beautiful but also sad. It can be wonderful to be as wise as many older people are but then I wish life could last forever. Anyhoo, beautiful piece! :)
*HUGS*

Steppen Wolf said...

Thank you, Angela!!