“My friend Jadhavji lost his battle to corona. He breathed his last in the hospital yesterday after his body organs started to fail. It must have been such a slow and excruciating death. And he had no body next to him to even hold his hand except for some nurses and doctors--all strangers really.
Jadhav was my age. We used to go for walks together in the morning.
AM I NEXT IN LINE TO DIE OF COVID?
This virus is killing so many of us aging people. How will I be able to fight it with my already existing heart and diabetes issues if my fit friends couldn’t fight it?” expressed a very concerned Manoj Kulkarni, a 61-year-old senior citizen of Pune. He, just like any other senior citizen is feeling jittery and insecure with the current condition and these feelings have hit a high due to the unlock phase.
Madhur Kulkarni, Manoj’s son shared how these feelings of anxiety and fear have taken over his father. “After Jadhav uncle’s death, papa seems to have lost all hope and faith in the situation. It is obvious to feel this way because when a person of your age group loses the battle to COVID, it is sure to make you feel vulnerable and helpless. This is the same thing that’s happening with papa.
Firstly, I also think it is the news that has a very negative effect on his thoughts. There is no happy or good news nowadays. The number of old people being hit by COVID is adding up to the feelings of powerlessness in papa. No matter how much I try, restricting his daily use of news intake is problematic.”
Many seniors have mentioned that when they hear stories of someone their age dying or when the news reflects on how the older generation is likely to get easily infected, they get extremely worried about their own health and start focusing on the thought that “Am I next?”
“The death of his very close friend who was of his own age is something that has triggered high levels of anxiety in him. He has stopped talking to anyone and has gone into a shell. It is almost as if he has given up the hope of living. I am sure, every time he thinks about how his fit friend couldn’t fight COVID he loses his hope in life and any positivity left in him.
I think these are very crucial times for them-- to accept and adjust to the reality of the ‘new normal’ where the deaths of people are just statistics.
We as adults need to talk to our parents and the elders frequently about their health and emotions. I have started spending one hour with papa every day, where we compulsorily reflect on our current emotions. We try to look for a possible trigger for those emotions and then think of a sensible solution and preventive measures that we can take against the mental pressure.
We’ve been doing this for two weeks now, and it has helped us so far to lower the negative impact on the social measures and incidents happening around us…”
(Pic credit: freepik/macrovector)