Old, frail and struggling with the bitter weather conditions, it was obvious that Jean and Derek Randall’s lives were at risk.
As Mr Randall’s health failed and the proud pensioner finally accepted he could no longer look after his wheelchair-bound wife, a neighbour and the couple’s MP contacted social services, the health service and even Age Concern in their search for a care home place.
But none of them had provided any assistance weeks later when a concerned neighbour looked through the couple’s letterbox and spotted the body of 76-year-old Mr Randall lying in the hallway.
Police then forced their way in to the ‘freezing cold’ bungalow in Kingsthorpe, a suburb of Northampton, and found Mrs Randall, 79, dead in her bed upstairs with a small heater on.
Insiders suspect the couple, who were in their 70s, may have been dead for five days.
[More]
Notes:
As Palin has been heard to say — “Death Panels”.
She would have done nothing for this couple – far right “fend for yourself” ethic and all. Can’t have them leeching off of good, hard-working taxpayers and such.
Anyway, I wonder why this gets no comments. Any opportunity to attack Muslims, “lefties” (ie anyone not holding a pitchfork), Obama, etc can top 50 responses easily but not something that probably affects this readership more than the average Canadian. Why do people shy away from serious issues? Isn’t anyone worried about what will happen if they lose their investments?
At the end of the day, it is ones family who carries the heavy load. The Mrs. and I squired three of our parents through their final years – and you know what? – it was a tremendous “inconvenience” in our lives but we gladly gave up our time and perferred lifestyle choices to handle the situation. The Mrs. was particularly gratious and giving of her time with my two parents and I thank her every day for her sacrifices to help them through their end of life period.
We are hopeful the example set might be followed by our offspring in due course but there are no guarantees in life are there?
As for the Randall’s, they no doubt fell through the cracks either because their extended family dosen’t exist or didn’t care. It is all well and good to say the State should have done something but I lay a lot of the responsibility on Mr. Randall’s shoulders as well. At some point he had to take responsibility for ensuring his wife had proper care, and warming up to that decision in the dead of winter and over the Christmas break was clearly not a very good set of decisions on his part.
- Ya got to play the cards your dealt with and ya got to know when to fold ‘em -. From the early reports, Mr Randall kept playing a losing hand. I suspect he is not the only senior out there playing losing hands but personally, I don’t think we need Government to be the one who decides when they should fold up the “Independence” game.
My condolences are with the family and friends of the Randalls. My fear is that there are many more “Randalls” out who are sailing too close to the wind for their own good and they should give their heads a shake and take responsibiloity for ensuring the health and safety of elderly partners before tragedy strikes.
# 1 & 2
Posted #2 then read Cynapse’s interesting take on personal responsibility (#1).
Look forward to hearing the blast in due course!
The only takeaway is that people will spend much time attacking people they fear and ignore issues that could leave them destitute.
If you (not you personally) don’t want to help anyone then don’t pretend you care about people.
But if you believe this then why are you more concerned about spiting people who don’t share your beliefs than you are monitoring the economy that will determine your sink-or-swim? Economic threads get close to 0 replies, unless there’s some way to work in AdScam or “Obama the Socialist”.
Stephen P – it says in the article that their only son died years ago..this is one of the saddest articles I have read in a long time. The last hours of Mr. and Mrs. Randell must have been terrible; especially for Mrs. Randell who could not get to her husband on the floor. Old Folks homes are not the answer for everyone but all old people should have someone dropping in on them on a regular basis to prevent this tragedy; unfortunately old people often do not have young able bodied friends because the youngsters of today were brought up with peers not with older or younger people. There are some people who never converse with people not in their own age group so they and their friends all get old at the same time.
I attended a memorial service last year for a 98 year old woman who had dementia. We had been friends for over 40 yrs. She was a war bride, and she had family. Her daughter and other moved back here to take care of her. He moved his business from Calgary here. They refused to put her in a seniors lodge or care facility. When the man spoke he said, we have never looked at taking care of mother as a chore, but more of a blessing. She brought great joy to our lives. You should never look at caring for a disabled person as a burden, but as a blessing. Her family was very far flung, Cuba, northern BC and eastern provinces, but they all took turns coming home for a few week to care for her.
That is a very inspiring story Mary T. I know there are many stories of neighbors taking the place of families too!
We can always count on the left to turn a truly tragic story into a political attack on anyone not holding a sufficiently “compassionate” stance.