Anbagam Home for the Aged

Sunday I went to visit Anbagam CSI Home for the Aged & Allied Services. It's a senior citizen's home sponsored by a local church. My friend sponsored a lunch for them both to celebrate the purchase of his new car as well as a memorial on the anniversary date of his father's death and invited several of his co-workers along as well. We had lunch with the "inmates" (I explained the negative connotations associated with that word in English. :) ) and then walked around the campus and visited many of them in their rooms. I was almost completely useless in this situation, not knowing any Tamil. :) But the residents were happy to meet us and thanked us for the lunch and the gifts we brought. It was remarkable how spry they all were, even though many of them were in their 80s. I was amazed that most of them shared a room among 3 people very happily. They were all very eager to tell about how they were living independently (usually) until something happened (a fall, an illness, etc.) and they needed to come to this place. They all expressed thankfulness for having this place to come to. The home is run through donations from the families that can afford it, pensions, and sponsorship of individual residents by outside organizations. It was an interesting experience, but it left all of us thinking about what we will be like when we get that old. :)