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Donovan Njerenga Ndwiga

Professor Diana Watkins

Comp 2 TR 10:30

29 January 2019

The Respect Our Elders Deserve

In our community, our elders live in almost solitude. Some live in nursing homes, while

others are a part of an assisted living program. Many of them do not have family or do not get to

see them often. As a community, it should be our responsibility to take care of the people who

cared for us and make their lives as best as possible. This goal can be accomplished by spending

time and caring for our elders, while also recognizing the part they played in who we are.

One way we can be better about caring for our elders is by building relationships with the

ones who do not have much contact with the outside world. Just sitting down with someone and

talking to them can improve their day beyond measure, especially if you are the first person they

have talked to in months besides their health care provider. In “On Being Neighborly” by Marcus

Brotherton, he points out by building relationships with our elders who cannot completely care

for themselves, we gain the opportunity to become the ones who care for them (Brotherton).

Knowing the person who is providing the care makes it much easier to accept the care. This

could be the solution to the relationship boundaries that are sometimes felt between a patient and

a health care provider.

Just as we can play a part in the healthcare of our elders, they also play a role in shaping

who we are. Many grandparents act as a second set of parents when we are children, and
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grandparents typically want to be involved in the lives of their grandchildren as much as they

can. This involvement has a major impact on our development as children. Research by

Professor Ann Buchanan from the Department of Social Policy and Intervention found “that

those with a high level of grandparental involvement had fewer emotional and behavioural

problems” (“Grandparents Contribute to Children's Wellbeing”). Not only do our elders play a

part in developing who we become, they also play a part in the development of our emotional

and behavioral stability. We must not forget how much of an impact they have had on us. We

must realize when the time comes, we need to be there for them like they were for us.

Not only is being there for our elders morally correct, it is also a benefit to us. By helping

others, we help ourselves. Typically, when you make someone’s day better, it makes your own

day better. You take pride in knowing you had a positive impact on someone. The way we treat

others tends to be the way we are treated. By making someone’s day better you open the door for

them to do the same to you. In the short film “Make a Difference” published on YouTube by The

Anonymous Helper, a man starts doing random acts of kindness for the people he sees on his

daily route. Every day he helps the same strangers, until they are no longer strangers anymore.

By helping them, he builds a relationship with them while also making their day a little better.

Overtime he sees the results of his small acts of kindness and realizes how much of an impact

those small acts had. Knowing he made someone’s life easier or better brought him joy, which

made his life better. By making the lives of those who cared us better, we not only return the

favor, we bring ourselves a sense of fulfillment and pride.

By creating relationships with the elderly, we can improve their quality of life. I believe it

is not only the right of the elderly to be treated better than they are today, but I also believe it is

the responsibility of the younger generations to make sure their treatment changes. The stronger
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our relationships are with them, the better both groups of people are. We can put an end to the

solitude in which our elderly live.

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Works Cited

Brotherton, Marcus. “Being a Good Neighbor.” The Art of Manliness, 26 Oct. 2018,
www.artofmanliness.com/articles/on-being-neighborly/.
“Grandparents Contribute to Children's Wellbeing.” University of Oxford,
www.ox.ac.uk/research/research-impact/grandparents-contribute-childrens-wellbeing#
“Make a Difference.” YouTube, uploaded by The Anonymous Helper, 27 September 2014
www.youtube.com/watch?v=QUGQ-fMgVSQ.