buckeyefarmer
Epic Contributor
Picture taken with Alabama in 2003.
We all need to be aware of "things" (reflexes, strength, agility...) changing as we age, but it can happen to anyone..... Several people I know had spinal injuries at a young age that put them permanently in a wheelchair.Bummer.
Falls and head injuries are nothing to take likely. I know two women who lost their husbands to head injuries from falling down stairs in their homes, and my next door neighbor's wife died from a broken neck falling down the stairs.
Last week I was out in my garage, my work area had accumulated a lot of junk on the floor, I picked up a mower deck and turned around only to feel one of my feet stop mid-stride against something and over I went holding the mower deck. Fortunately, I saw where I was falling and was able to get away with scrapes and a bruise, but the whole time I was going over I was thinking about my next door neighbor and how's this gonna end? Scary.
Wife and I were on a day trip in Central Ontario something like 10-15 years ago, and saw a sign at an old well preserved 1940's dance-hall "Nazareth Tonight". Grabbed dinner, and bought tickets. Great show. I don't remember his exact words, but he gave a great intro (misspent life of rock-star) to This Flight Tonight.Dan McCafferty, singer of Nazareth just passed away. Hair of the Dog was such a great album. Played that vinyl over and over for years.
Wife and I were on a day trip in Central Ontario something like 10-15 years ago, ........
Carpe Diem.
Rgds, D.
My mother is 85, walks with a cane, yet still insists on going down in the cellar regularly. My grandfather had the house built in 1927 and the stairs are narrow, steep with short treads. As you said she uses the railing but I still don't like it. After my father passed away in 2018 we (finally) convinced her to move the washing machine from the cellar to the first floor, but she still finds reasons to go up and down those stairs.My mother in-law is 82 and still goes down to the basement and back up. We ask her not to, but she does. Always holds the rail and goes slow. Her late husband passed away 2 years ago at age 93. He had a race track set up in the basement. It was made of old carpet scraps, and on crummy days, he'd go down there and walk a couple hundred laps!
That stopped around the last 6 months of his life. He was always active. The epitome of use it or lose it. Well, he always used it.
Just last spring I converted a closet in the 1st floor spare bedroom to a laundry room for my mother in-law's house. She said she didn't want it and wanted to keep using the basement laundry.... until she got it. Now she likes it. She's had a liver transplant and two hip replacements, and gets winded walking to the bathroom. Yet she still goes down in the basement to look at stuff. We got her a life alert with fall detection.My mother is 85, walks with a cane, yet still insists on going down in the cellar regularly. My grandfather had the house built in 1927 and the stairs are narrow, steep with short treads. As you said she uses the railing but I still don't like it. After my father passed away in 2018 we (finally) convinced her to move the washing machine from the cellar to the first floor, but she still finds reasons to go up and down those stairs.
My mother carries a phone with a button which will call 911... yet if she falls and can't reach it she is SOL. I've asked her to set up with somebody so that she calls them every day but she doesn't think it's necessary. I tore out a closet in the house where the washer/dryer were to go. She originally planned to get a stacking unit but what she has still works so why bother? I'm not sure that having a dryer up top is a good idea anyways considering her age.Just last spring I converted a closet in the 1st floor spare bedroom to a laundry room for my mother in-law's house. She said she didn't want it and wanted to keep using the basement laundry.... until she got it. Now she likes it. She's had a liver transplant and two hip replacements, and gets winded walking to the bathroom. Yet she still goes down in the basement to look at stuff. We got her a life alert with fall detection.
Screw the door shut.
My buddy went through this basement stairs thing with his parents... luckily nobody got hurt before they passed.My mother carries a phone with a button which will call 911... yet if she falls and can't reach it she is SOL. I've asked her to set up with somebody so that she calls them every day but she doesn't think it's necessary. I tore out a closet in the house where the washer/dryer were to go. She originally planned to get a stacking unit but what she has still works so why bother? I'm not sure that having a dryer up top is a good idea anyways considering her age.
She also has been diabetic for 20+ years yet has managed it strictly by controlling her diet.
Believe me, I've threatened to. She only listens to my older brother and sister though, so I would have to sell them on it first.