Aging in Community Project in Sri Lanka

Sometimes, I encounter a question from my friends that

“Why are you so passionate about improving elder care?”

Each time I tried to answer the question in a past, I always fail to articulate my feeling, although I knew that I had a strong motivation for this issue deep in my heart.

When I was in Sri Lanka eating curry with my friends, I suddenly had a strange feeling about why I was in an unfamiliar country to learn about elders’ lives. Then, I questioned myself why I am interested in elder care so much that I lived in a nursing home, coming to Sri Lanka , and studying almost ten years in graduate school that is far away from my family.

At that time, again, I still could not articulate my feeling, and was struggling to come up with an answer for myself until I encountered a scene in the movie “the freedom writers.”

In that movie, an elder woman, who helped Ann Frank during the Nazism era, came and spoke to high school students in the USA . When a student told her that she would be his HERO because of her noble and brave action to protect Ann Frank under the frightening situation, she answered to him that  “I am not a HERO. I just did it because it was the right thing to do.”

Her comment brought me back the memory of talking to Jude and Bill Thomas for the first time. When I asked them why they chose the hard path to start the Eden Alternative, they said that “We are doing this because it is the right thing to do…”

It was such a great moment for me to realize myself the reason why I am doing what I am doing. It was clear that the simple concept of “doing the right thing,” has always been the guide for my path. Throughout my journey, I also learned that all the people in the culture change movement are the heroes because they are trying hard to “do the right things for elders”. Some people are nationally and internationally recognized as s “movers and shakers of culture change,” however, the real heroes are those who take care of elders in long term care facilities everyday.

I would like to always remind myself that every one of us can turn on a small right to make a brighter and better place for all of us to live together.