My father-in-law is 93 and is healthy and active. He lives alone now since he recently lost my MIL after 72 years of marriage. This, of course, was very hard on him. Fortunately, my husband comes from a family of 10 and everyone has pitched in to keep Dad engaged and involved. We each take a night for dinner and he either drives over or has dinner at his house with one of his kids.
I know I can't control his decisions or the decisions of the rest of the family but I am so afraid of giving him the virus and would never forgive myself if he got sick after coming here. We've been pretty careful about going out and live in an area where there is only one case locally so far but I know this is just the tip of the iceberg too. We've offered to drop dinner off but I think it would be almost as bad to isolate him. He's a very social person. And he said he'd rather come over like he has for the last several months.
What to do???
(I expect the staff will have found her something. Our retail workers are utterly exhausted but they are being total heroes when it comes to small but important acts of kindness. Even my local newsagent: the owner noticed that his older, frailer customers were trying to open the door with their elbows, so he's told his team to keep the door wedged open and put a space heater behind their counter.)
I could have bought a packet of nine loo rolls. I only want four. I'm holding out for the non-jumbo stocks - but with three rolls and two boxes of Kleenex in the house, I might be facing a tense time.
Imperial-College-COVID19-NPI-modelling-16-03-2020.pdf
Nobody disputes their statistics; the trouble is in governments' becoming transfixed by their worst case scenarios. Everyone goes a bit rabbit-in-the-headlights-y, apparently.
-FaceTime is easier.
-Their parents had trouble with the tech and even when it was functioning properly didn’t have any advantage over FaceTime or hangouts.
So you might like it (or sell it which the multiple posts suggest) but it doesn’t look like others do.,,
If others in the family have responsibilities to other seniors, however, they may need to stay away from him regardless in order to reduce the overall risk of transmitting the infection from one household to another. In that case, perhaps they can phone him as often as they would normally visit him?
Maybe be extra careful when handling his cutlery, plates and drinking glasses, too. Or use paper products when you have dinner. Make sure no one touches them with unwashed hands.
Kids are often contagious when they have very minimal symptoms so I would advise keeping the children off him too.
He's 93. This could last for months. I'd try to keep the dinners if that's what he'd like to do.
We are all going to have to get used to this new way of doing things.