May 27, 2020
Last week I had the opportunity to make some “aging in place” improvements to the home of my friend and church’s retired secretary (I’ll call her Mary). Done as a mission of Trinity Evangelical Church not FCDR, it certainly strongly reinforced FCDR’s passion for making these improvements in homes we rebuild.
Mary was experiencing a range of issues including serious dementia, sundowner’s syndrome, and balance problems as well as being very frail. To compound matters, she lived with her daughter in a second floor apartment. Daughter was lovingly providing 24×7 care under COVID lockdown conditions with no assistance.
Originally we were approached about blocking the two stairwells to prevent falls and wandering off. On my first site visit standing on a three-step landing with Mary and daughter, Mary tumbled into my arms but would have fallen off the landing (no railing) with extremely likely broken bones. Easy decision—decided to install railing the next day. With the assistance of multiple-trip FCDR volunteers, Michael and Kevin, we planted posts and bracing the next day. After we left, daughter informed me that Mary once again almost fell off the landing but they caught themselves on the posts and temporary bracing.
I’ve included a picture of yours truly standing beside the stair railing as well as the pet gates we installed to prevent access to the stairs. Not magical or code-required but life-saving. We also installed child locks on door interiors to prevent wandering off. I can just imagine how much fun you real construction guys are going to have with my railing.
The real point is that we’ll never know how many “trip and fall” accidents you guys have prevented over the years. I’m lucky I have the immediate reward of knowing. In Mary’s situation and so many of our homeowners, a single fall could be catastrophic. As you know, I was passionate before but now I’m over the top and completely fired up about the aging in place improvements you guys are making!
Bart Tucker/FCDR President
