Claire
Master Chef
Cath, I got into reading to shut-in freinds because I met a woman who was going blind in a bar when we first moved here. Having been in that position myself (I had a severe case of iritis once), I knew that the one thing I would miss the most was reading. I asked her over and over again for a year and one day she told me a couple of friends of hers had written books and she desperately wanted to read them (and they are not the kind of books you're going to find on tape). That was over five years ago. I now hike up to their home (one friend is blind, the other is completely crippled with rheumatoid arthritis) and read to them twice a week. Sometimes I spend the first half-hour reading mail and newsletters, then segue into a book (right now it is The Measure of a Man by Sidney Poitier; in line are a travelogue and The Secret Garden; my friends were interested in childrens' books and had not read this classic, so that will be it. In the past we've read everything from large historic tomes to novels (these women are very highly educated, much more so than I).
If this kind of thing interests you, I recommend you contact your local assisted living facility. I do this with these ladies because they are friends, and it has enriched my life. I think one of the oddest moments was when someone told me they thought one of these ladies was dead. No, she just cannot get out of her house. This made a large difference in her life.
A friend I know did read at an assisted living facility for many years. He used to joke that he could read the same chapter over and over again because most everyone suffered from some sort of dementia (alzeimers or parkinsons). In my case, my ladies are very alert and we discuss what we read. My husband is a historian by nature, and we often get calls asking him for information (the latest was a question about the Bay of Pigs; often there are calls about the history of the Roman Catholic Church, or the history of the middle ages, or ..... ).
You might also contact your local library to see if they have a program. I know most libraries have programs for reading to children, which is great. But maybe some out there have programs for reading to adults who cannot. There are probably more out there than you'd think. An acquaintance told me that because of crippling arthritis, her mom can no longer hold up a book. This is the case with one of my reading buddies.
If this kind of thing interests you, I recommend you contact your local assisted living facility. I do this with these ladies because they are friends, and it has enriched my life. I think one of the oddest moments was when someone told me they thought one of these ladies was dead. No, she just cannot get out of her house. This made a large difference in her life.
A friend I know did read at an assisted living facility for many years. He used to joke that he could read the same chapter over and over again because most everyone suffered from some sort of dementia (alzeimers or parkinsons). In my case, my ladies are very alert and we discuss what we read. My husband is a historian by nature, and we often get calls asking him for information (the latest was a question about the Bay of Pigs; often there are calls about the history of the Roman Catholic Church, or the history of the middle ages, or ..... ).
You might also contact your local library to see if they have a program. I know most libraries have programs for reading to children, which is great. But maybe some out there have programs for reading to adults who cannot. There are probably more out there than you'd think. An acquaintance told me that because of crippling arthritis, her mom can no longer hold up a book. This is the case with one of my reading buddies.
Barbara
