Assisted Living

Sudha stared at her husband Ajay still seeping on the bed. His body had shriveled and there were black circles underneath his eyes. Yet he looked handsome.

As the morning sun flooded the room, she let the golden rays soak her skin. It reminded her of their days spent in the beach huts during holidays in the past. For a moment her mind conjured up the image of the rhythmic waves going soft as they touched the sandy shore and her heart filled with the warmth of those days.

As she sighed and smiled, she heard her husband whisper “are you back in the beach hut?”

A startled Sudha turned towards her husband and said “You scared me. I didn’t realize you were awake. You sneak into my mind or what?”

Ajay reached out to take Sudha’s hand into his and said “Yes. You for one can’t complain when you constantly stalk me when I am asleep.”

Both of them burst out laughing. They continued to lie next to each other in silence. Sudha knew, over the five decades of their married life, they had developed an uncanny capability to read each other’s minds. Yet, every time something like this happened, it still surprised her.

“Get up, you creaky bones. It’s time for our morning walk.” Ajay said as he sauntered towards the bathroom.

“Look who’s talking. I was awake quite a while ago.” Sudha replied.

“But I am the one out of the bed first” Ajay quipped jutting his head out of the bathroom door before shutting it behind him.

She sighed at the thought of their long morning walk ahead. She wasn’t a person who enjoyed physical activities like Ajay did. Ajay had always been into sports, right from his school days. He was also a state level competitor in swimming. Sudha was hardly into anything that called for physical exertion. Art was her forte and she enjoyed painting, drawing and knitting.

“Our passions definitely reflect on our bodies” Sudha thought as she looked at her overweight body. Thanks to Ajay, she managed to get a bit of exercise. Of late, she started seeing the merits of his insistence, as she started to feel lighter and more nimble on her feet.

Initially, she wasn’t so keen on moving into this assisted living kind of arrangement. She even felt offended that Ajay should suggest something like that. She argued saying “how can you think of selling the house that we both spent so much time building together? There are so many memories associated with our house. Why should we move into something smaller and that too so remote?”

Ajay would sit her down and patiently explain to her that as they aged, they have to be practical and shift into something that was more manageable. As far as memories were concerned, there are umpteen number of photos and videos to keep them alive, he argued. Since they were moving into a self-sufficient community, that should take care of most of things they needed and for the remaining ones, they had their car, he added.

“Do you want the children settled abroad to constantly worry about us?” he counter-questioned her. “As it is, their lives are full of stress with the kind of fast-paced lives they have” he would go on. “We have to adapt to the changing times Sudhi”, he would urge. Ultimately, he convinced her that it was in the best interests of everyone that they moved into the assisted living. 

After thorough research, they narrowed down to a couple of options before choosing the present one. The “Sprawling Meadows” lived up to its name, with well maintained vacant space giving freedom to its residents to grow and maintain one’s own garden around each of their houses. Sudha had her own vegetable garden in her backyard and as she tended to those plants, she felt as though she had been given a new lease of life. 

The facility was almost self sufficient in every respect. It was at the outskirts of Bengaluru close to the airport. Having been built only for senior citizens, it had special features such as anti skid tiles, wheel chair friendly path ways, round the clock medical assistance etc. More than anything else, the community brought together like minded people and Sudha, who was in general a very friendly person, ended up making quite a few friends.

After their morning walk, as Sudha got busy in her garden, she saw her neighbor Malini sitting in her backyard all by herself. Seeing her in a pensive mood, Sudha approached her. Malini had shifted to the facility with her husband a couple of months ago and she often complained about her children leaving them both in the facility. Sudha had let her complain realizing that it was too soon to offer her any advice.

“I guess, it’s time” she thought to herself. She put some fresh vegetables from her garden into an air sealed pouch and walked across the lawn towards her neighbour’s house.

“Malini, I brought some fresh vegetables for you” she said as she settled down next to her.

As usual Malini started to vent about her children. Taking Malini’s hands into hers, Sudha went about explaining how she herself was totally against moving into an assisted living facility and how her husband convinced her about the benefits of doing so.

Sudha felt something in Malini start to give away. She knew she had to work on her more just the way her husband had done with her.

“Isn’t it the true meaning of assisted living, after all?” she thought as she walked towards her house after a couple of hours.

This story is dedicated to all the Senior Citizens out there on the occasion of the World Senior Citizen Day on 21st August, 2021