Sometimes The Little Things Are A Big Deal

My grandparents recently moved to an assisted living facility due to their health declining as they reached their late eighties. I had just finished visiting them and was walking out the door when I tripped over a large floor mat that had frayed on one spot. I stumbled forward but caught myself. I didn’t think much of it as I walked back to my car, but then a thought occurred to me. I about-faced and walked back inside and went to the office.

Me: “Excuse me. I just tripped over a worn-out spot on your doormat. If I can almost fall, then one of your elderly residents…”

I didn’t even have to finish before the three staff members leaped out of their chairs, rushed out, rolled up the damaged mat, and took it away.

When I was eleven, my great-grandmother tripped over a mat just like that one at the age of ninety-seven. The injuries she obtained from that hastened the decline of her health, and she died shortly after her ninety-eighth birthday, so I know how something that seems like a minor nuisance to a guy in his twenties is a serious hazard to the elderly residents of this facility. With so many stories of inattentive caregivers and poorly run old folks’ homes, it was nice to see employees that took their job seriously and to have the knowledge that my grandparents were well taken care of.