I am a Family Caregiver living in Abhiramapuram and my mother and I take care of my elderly grandmother. My grandmother has some challenges with mobility and with moving her right arm as she is a stroke survivor, but she manages quite well and is very lively.
This Diwali, as per the custom each year, we wanted to make sure that my grandmother had a new dress to wear to celebrate the day. She usually wears nightdresses along with a towel or dupatta around her neck. We had purchased a beautifully designed nightdress from the Cocoon collection at the Old is Gold Store before Diwali, and knew we wanted to get her a new one from the same collection.
We love this line of clothing for her because the shoulder buttons and roomy size of the dress make it easy for her to put on because she does not need to lift both hands or struggle to have it fit over her healthy frame. 
The length of the dress is also slightly shorter, so we don’t have to worry about her tripping over it when we are helping her to move from the bed to her chair. Previously we had to hem all nightgowns, but this one seems to really be made with our needs in mind. Sometimes during Diwali we reminisce on how she used to wear beautiful saris and feel a bit sad that we cannot buy her one to wear. But, from our previous experience with a Cocoon nightgown, we know it looks and feels like a high quality garment, so it made us feel like we are giving her something nice in lieu of a sari like the old days.
I was happy to get her one in a bold color for Diwali, because I knew it would be an item we could purchase and use right away, without alteration, and she would be comfortable both putting it on and wearing it. Indeed she was delighted to wear her new dress that day and we had a wonderful celebration.
A nightdress seems like a simple thing to write about, but to us these dresses it allows us to add some variety, convenience and comfort to our lovely grandmother’s life.
Almost 15 million elderly Indians live all alone and close to three-fourths of them are women. In some states like Tamil Nadu the proportion of such ‘single elders’ is even higher with one in eleven of those aged above 60 living alone. One in every seven elderly persons in India lives in a household where there is nobody below the age of 60. In states like Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, a quarter of the elderly population lives in such all-elderly households.
The Global AgeWatch Index 2014 has ranked India a lowly 69th among 96 countries it has ranked on how friendly the countries are for senior citizens.
A lot of activities are being planned by various organizations during the first week of October in view of the Elders’ day.
Earlier today, we addressed a ladies club at a defence colony in Chennai. The purpose of the meeting was two-fold, one to tell them about the products we have and the other to get suggestions of products they may want us to deal with.
SAMBALPUR: In a bid to provide safety to elderly citizens, who are becoming easy target of criminals, SP Prateek Mohanty launched a Senior Citizen Security Cell here on Tuesday.
Dignity Foundation Chennai Chapter is launching their “Legal Clinic” at Dignity Foundation Office on August 13th.
Delhi Development Authority has drafted a proposal to create the biggest housing project for the elderly built with government participation in the country. Spread over 24 acres in Rohini, the plan is to construct around 4,500 one-room flats for the elderly on rental basis with common kitchens, canteens, medical and recreational facilities.
In the times of India today, there is a nice article on home delivered food for the elderly. An excerpt from the article is given below. Follow the link at the end to read the entire article.
One of the few reasons why living in India is better than living in some developed country, especially for senior citizens, is the option we have to order stuff that we need over the phone and getting it delivered within hours or even minutes to our doorstep.
