Once upon a time, the old people lived and died in the family, when families still existed. They were listened to and when they became completely senile, they were tolerated like tiny children who are a bit annoying. Today the value of an old person is his pension. It is used to pay the rent and the utility bills of the unemployed grandchildren. He’s an old time-limited fixed rate Treasury Bond. It’s not too rare that he gets frozen in the freezer at death so that the demise is not declared and the income can continue to flow in. The useless old person ends up in a home or in hospital while waiting for his funeral.
Nick il Nero, a friend of the blog, has ended up in a clinic in the geriatrics ward. Here’s what he has to say.

“Dear Beppe, diabetes has taken hold of me, the paunch has betrayed me. I’m back in hospital after a week there. The first three days went by marked by the most serious foolishness. I had a really terrifying painful arm and the news about diabetes disturbed me a bit. In my head I was thinking that the tons of food I’ve eaten over the last few years would not have given me big problems, and then …. BANG!!! The machine has broken down. I find I have a disease that will probably be with me forever. Never mind, what’s done is done. (Oh – an omelette - oh gorgeous…) I have to go on a diet that keeps the glycemic values balanced. I have to take three tiny pills a day. Basically I will lose 30 kilo in a few months and you will call me ‘Nik lo Smilzo’ {Nik the skinny}
The hospital is still a sad and dark place where people complain for too many reasons. The nurses are angels who run all over to look after the needs of the patients. There are really only a few of them to look after the needs of the whole of the general medical ward. The Health system in this country is not working of course because of the usual political money flows, too much money spent badly.
In my room, there were companions in my adventure. There was Mario, the oldest, aged 96 he still had a few moments to live, who knows who he was, he didn’t talk, he grumbled, a terrifying wheeze that seemed like the sound of an injured dinosaur. There was Mario whom they took away the other morning, a skeleton who could no longer be helped because he had no veins that could be accessed for treatment. Then there was Adolfo, lung cancer, serious respiratory difficulties, an ATC driver for 30 years, he was the most desperate and every day he was asking to die, he suffered terribly and he didn’t breathe even with the oxygen. Every morning, he asked me to keep him company for a bit and he told me the story of his life. Another old man, aged 83 was in the bed near the window, I don’t know his name, an oxygen mask, a competition-style incontinence pad and he was so hungry he could have eaten his own mother, he came out of the hospital today with me. As soon as the doctor told him he was being discharged, he took everything off and he got completely dressed with the tubes of the drip coming out of his shirt, in the time that the doctor was still finishing off his rounds in the ward. Spectacular!! In the centre of the room, a guy from Pakistan who reminded me of the Buddha, he slept while he was seated, two legs and two arms as thin as grissini and a stomach of biblical proportions, diabetic like myself, but with world-record-breaking values, with dialysis every other day. The last of my companions was an old man aged 79, as thin as Ghandi and with a heart of gold. He was ashamed because the nurses gave him a wash every morning. He couldn’t get out of bed because he was too thin and weak. Last night, a young man who spent the night with Adolfo, cut his hair and his beard. And he asked me what I thought. I gave him a kiss on his forehead and i told him he looked fantastic.
Wonderful old men who are living out the final moments of their existence with the wish to go away and not stay there, men who have lived through who knows what stories, but still they are protagonists of a generation that is on its way out too often in the midst of complete indifference.
I have the luck to have the most numerous family in Italy, my friends. They have come in droves to visit me. I have understood that I am very lucky to know so many people, the messages of solidarity on Facebook, the SMS messages, the emails, have filled my heart with happiness. THANK YOU to everyone for always being there through thick and thin.“ Hugs , NIK