Those who reach that age to start asking for help say that aging happens on landings, not on steps. One day you are fine and the next you have a drop you didn’t expect. You probably won’t be the first to notice it, but the friend you meet on the street who, after greeting you, falls silent. Nothing resonates more. Because the image the mirror reflects is inconclusive.
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They also say that each age has its definition. The worst decade is the 40s, when youth ends, the first time you are addressed formally. At 50 you think: “How outrageous!”. At 60, “this should be forbidden”. At 70 you no longer count years, you count health or illness, projects or nothing. If you reach 80, you have to fight not to smell like old closed-up.
In one of the longest-lived countries in the world, having a dignified old age has become a luxury
“You have to air out and let the sun reach the circulation.”
In Spain, octogenarians are already more than three million. By 2035, if the INE is right and no other pandemic appears, that age group will grow by almost 48%.
At 80 you still jump puddles. At 90 you fall into them. The black hole is on the ground. So it is about knowing where you put your feet without stumbling or, if you don’t manage, having someone nearby to hold you.
Or to lift you from bed. Or to bring the spoon to your mouth.
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Not even the most vital person manages to escape the ravages of time on the body or mind. It becomes increasingly difficult to climb a new step… Until you can no longer do it alone. And where is the State at that moment? In one of the longest-lived countries in the world alongside Japan, having a dignified old age has become a luxury.
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These days the Catalan actress Assumpta Serna has reminded us of this with two outraged videos on social media. She has unleashed a kind of Me Too that rulers should take good note of. Just read the comments on the news this newspaper published on Tuesday: they form a chorus of the same story, told in a thousand ways.
“Many families become impoverished because they leave their jobs and take out loans to care for their loved ones,” says Serna visibly angry.
Her mother has turned one hundred. Twelve strokes in a few months. The actress applied for dependency aid, and has hit the insurmountable wall of bureaucracy and the inefficiency of the Administration. Ten years ago, her father died before he was granted the benefit. Serna fears the story will repeat itself.
It is hard to find a more devastating accusation than that: he died before.
On July 1, the Government was scheduled to start distributing more than 2 billion extra among the autonomous communities under the Dependency law. We will have to ask where they are, how they are being used, and who monitors that they reach those who correspond.
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Every 14 minutes a person dies waiting for help. One hundred a day.
