Indian Ocean Tsunami Victims: Both Young and Old
Posted by Cottontimer on 26 Dec 2005 | Tagged as: News and Current Events
As a mother, I’m usually most affected by stories about children. Over the weekend, I’ve been consumed by news about the effect of the Indian Ocean tsunami on children; some dead, orphaned, or kidnapped.
So it was a wake-up call to read Respect Your Elders in the New York Times. The fishing village of Nam Khem in Thailand lost half of its 5,000 residents to four massive waves last December. Those left behind include the elderly who depended on their children for care.
According to Sudthida Somsakserm, a local restaurant owner who has been giving food to the elderly people in Nam Khem, the government has done little to help those who can’t help themselves. “There has been a push to get boats to the fisherman and to help the orphaned children, but many of the old people have been totally forgotten,” she told me. “A lot of them survived the tsunami because they went to the temple on higher ground that morning, but their families were killed because they had to go to work. In Thailand, the children always take care of their parents.”
Marv’s mom is visiting us this week. I’m grateful that we’re still here to take care of her and that we have nothing more strenuous to do than shop in markets without air conditioning.
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Reading about mothers, about families who have lost children always puts much into perspective for me as an autism mother. There is much suffering for myself and other autism parents as I and we see autistic children struggle everyday due to their disability, but the suffering of one who has lost a child is absolute. I always know this when I hold my little guy in my arms.
KChew: Everything’s relative, isn’t it? *hugs*
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I’m feeling this way a lot right now. This morning there was a brief blurb on our local NPR station about a local father who had beaten his 11-week-old daughter to death in March of 2003, three months before Paul was born. I started crying right then and there in the car, yelling, “How could anyone DO that to a little, tiny baby?!” Stories like that always really get to me emotionally, but even more so when I’m more hormonal than usual. Paul probably wondered what the heck was wrong with me.
I think it’s a shame that we’ve made such a drastic shift from children being entirely responsible for their parents in their old age to old people being entirely responsible for themselves in their old age. A friend of mine had her grandmother living with their family from the time she (my friend) was in junior high, and I think it was a really good arrangement for the whole family. She had a small apartment on the side of the house, so she could have her autonomy, but also shared meals with the family a few times a week and was involved in the kids’ lives.
mwana_isimu: What a horrible story no matter your hormonal state. I don’t know how people could lose control like that either.
Nobody likes to be completely responsible or dependent. It’s a really tough situation especially with the usual tensions between parents and children. I don’t know what it’s going to be like when I’m old. I think I may prefer a good nursing home to living with my kid(s).