SAD

My mother in law is in a care home.  There was no choice, she is bed ridden, unable to get to the
toilet or take a bath by herself.  Even standing for a couple of minutes has her in pain.
She has no other family, there are cousins somewhere but I have no idea where or who they are.
She has no money, no savings just a meager pension of about 450 pounds every two months.  The only place that had room and could work with the welfare to pay the balance of her care is an older place.  Before she was put in there we went and talked to the staff.  I asked about activities,  chance to interact with the other residents and staff, some kind of rehabilitation, I was reassured that there was such things but I am not seeing that.  David and I went yesterday.  As we walked to her room, that she shares with other ladies, the smell of urine was overwhelming, the doors to the other rooms are open and the residents are just lying there, neither dead or alive.  My mother in law has nothing to look at, I think she is in her bed all day with a blank wall to stare at, no TV, nothing to interact with!
Just a wall  with a calendar, for what, to count down the days until she dies.  It is really sad and I can't do anything about it!  I can't have her here, my health is not good enough and she would totally stress us all out.  We can't afford anywhere else and I think her health is so fragile that moving her could be dangerous!  She has worked hard her whole life to be dumped in this place. One problem is that the government wants families to care for the elderly at home so there is little funding for care homes.

And just to make me more sad there was an awful knife attack this morning in a city just outside of Tokyo.  The news so far states that one elementary school girl has been killed, along with 15 others that have been injured.