It is not that long ago that morning tea and coffee was universally dished up via the tea trolley. Pushed around by the happiest of smiling faces with a penchant for gossip, the trolley became in its own right an institution in the wider workplace, hospitals and aged care. The hallmarks of the tea trolley were the large stainless steel urn, the giant pot of tea, usurped in recent times by the tea bag, and that jar of finely ground coffee powder that left those who drank it with the most curious of bitter tastes in their mouth.
It is little wonder that a decade ago, a good friend of mine would give her children Christmas presents on the condition that there was never to be a place in an aged care facility for her. This condition of future “mummy care” was written on the poor kid’s Christmas cards, for we are talking about a lawyer here. “Find me a rocking chair on a sunny porch and if I drop off, I drop off ….” she would say.
I wonder if my friend would still say the same thing now. Addicted to espresso coffee she can now get it at the right aged care places. Facilities are not so paternalistic as to deny her the end of day glass of red wine or two. At the right place she can continue receiving her weekly remedial massages, possibly at a cheaper price than the Double Bay Beauty and Therapy Day Spa. Her guilt ridden children may even be so brave as to suggest that their mum could easily find a place with her own room and a porch positioned for the morning sun. Rock away mum, we still love you and we will communicate on Facebook with you every minute of the day, because you also have internet access.
There is a buzz of excitement around the progressive aged care facilities these days and a glance at the QPS Benchmarking Newsletter articles such “Anyone for Coffee” or “Ballroom Blitz” might just show how ‘the times are a changin’. We remember that Bob Dylan song don’t we fellow baby boomers? Or is it still true that if we can remember the sixties, we did not live in them.
