I have neither posted anything nor reorganized my blog as promised because shortly after my retirement, my 97 year old mother became very ill with incurable pneumonia. I went to the Senior Citizens' Residence where she was in Miami. She passed away on March 10. This was the same date my father died on 37 years before. Coincidence or an indication of my mother's strong will??
Here is the photo and write-up my sister and I wrote for the non-denominational service ( no particular religion) that was held for her in the Residence where she had many friends.
Click here
She had paliative care, called "hospice care", right in her room, with oxygen, nurses night and day and the medication necessary to alleviate suffering as much as possible- which at her age was the best option.
I don't know if this type of care exists as easily here or not.
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Reflecting on health, illness and death here and there, I see one thing I like better in each society.
On the one hand, each trip to the States, I'm increasingly amazed by the amount of commercial spots on US TV for medications ( with people looking falsely happy after taking them!), supplements, and diet and exercise products. The US has become a nation of hypocondriacs! It's almost as though they think that if they take enough care of themselves, they might never die - as though death were an option they can avoid with money and hard work instead of a fact of life! Steve Jobs was an exception!
This health obsession is inescapable on US TV in several ways:
1- TV commercials for prescription drugs, something not allowed in the EU. ( See examples 2 posts up)
Prozac commercial Click right below
:
Celebrex commercial: Click top of picture
2- Invention of new "diseases" like "restless leg syndrome" ,"non-24" or a slight calcium loss after menopause to sell new or already existing medications. PMS is a household word, and doctors are prescribing Prozac for it!
3.Similar obsession with all kinds of supplements. Perhaps unlike Spain, it's not that most Americans pop conventional pills but not natural supplements: they take everyting they can get their hands on and everything is advertised continually on TV.
4. This includes cosmetic surgery and less invasive procedures such as Botox. Here you have "Corporación Dermo-estética" There you have hundreds!
5.- The so-called "ambulance chasers". These are very commercial lawyers who constantly advertise about how people with a given disease are probably able to SUE a producer of some product or the constructor of their house.
All this is satrized one post above or HERE
6. Another difference is attitude towards infectuous diseases. There is no recognition that we have germs inside us as part of our "eco-system" and that they can "get the upper hand" if we don't protect ourselves, become over-tired, etc., the virus or bacteria is always "the enemy outside us to be fought or avoided. People have become very paranoid about flying not only because of terrorism but because of germs! If you cough or say you have a little cold, people run from you as if you'd said you have the plague! I've speculated that this might be because historically Americans have always seen themselves as the "good guys" of society, with the enemy outside them. Or because of a certain historical attitude of FEAR, which Michael Moore satirizes in the cartoon section of Bowling for Columbine, which I've shown in some classes. Click here
On the other hand, I like the funeral services there: they are more casual and less solemn and friends and family members speak spontaneously, sharing even humorous memories about the person.
I find the Catholic funeral mass too impersonal. For funeral scene from "Four Weddings and A Funeral" with subtitles, CLICK HERE
I also like the "neighorborly attitude". Friends and neighbors usually give food to the grieving family members so that they don't have to worry about cooking at this time and some of the food and drink they bring is often used for a little party right after the service. You've probably seen this in American movies. For final scene from Philadephia Click here
