This one is based on the death of my mother in 2001 and the hell she was in when under nursing facility care. It really doesn't matter which of them she was in and out of until her death, they all were zoos filled with caged human animals who were treated as such. The unsanitary living conditions, the lack of any professionalism, little to no mercy, the screams and moans of the dying, the 24/7 vacuum cleaners running and yet nurses just standing around most of the time, eating, or on the phone. I hated those places. Had I not visited my mother the week before she died with a surprise visit to her last nursing home, she would have died w/o me as she had a 105o temperature and her nurse failed to contact any doctor let alone transfer her to a hospital. But I made them and she was awake the next morning- a Friday. I got to speak to my mom one last time before she was pumped with drugs and allowed to die (her temperature returned and she had double-pneumonia). After she died, some years later, those facilities were reported for gross negligience after being reviewed. I think it is a shame to take the elderly and subject them to a fate worse than some prisons. My mom was starved, abused, and refused care and I couldn't be there 24/7 b/c I was working a F/T job myself and had my own obligations. Now I am dying but refuse hospital care and will never be put in a nursing facility- God willing.

Dedicated to my mom Brenda Jeanne Arndt nee Haverstein (5/19/40-7/25/01), age 61. I live in California, she lies in Pennsylvania next to my father, Robert Sr., and my older brother Stephen.