By Edward I.O. Sakwe, RN, BSN

How many times have you gone to bed at night feeling sad and depressed, like nobody knows or care if you exist, or saying to yourself this life is not worth living anymore? When was the last time your phone rang, and it was a friend or family member calling to just check on you, to find out how you’re doing, and to ask if you need anything, or if they can come over for a short visit, to watch a movie with you, or for you both to fix dinner together?

Even though the world’s population keep increasing every year, the percentage of people who claim to be lonely is also increasing each year. People continue to grow farther apart from each other every year. Suicide rates are on the rise, family feuds, and divorce are also on the rise. People are beginning to focus more and more on the things of this life rather than focusing more on what matters the most which is family.

As a healthcare worker, you experience firsthand how lonely life could be, especially for our senior citizens living in health care institutions. some will tell you “I have no family”, “I don’t want to border them”, “they have their own things to worry about” “they all live out of state”. The truth is our parents should never at any point in their life consider themselves a burden to us or be left feeling lonely. They brought us into this world, they raised us even in the toughest of times. They stayed awake most nights watching us sleep and wondering what tomorrow will be like, what we’re going to eat, or wear, or how we’re going to get to school, or worry about the prognosis of the diagnosis the doctor just gave, or how to get us on the list because our kidneys or liver, or heart is failing. They worked hard tirelessly day in, day out to care for us, they are our heroes, the least we can do for them is to make time for them.

Our parents understand better than anyone else how busy life is for us, juggling between our spouse, our kids, our jobs, and the home renovation project we are constantly working on. They are not asking us for much, all they’re asking is to take 5 minutes of our time in that busy schedule of ours to check on them. To call and say “hey mom, this is Nanje, I’m just calling to check on you, to see how you’re doing. To ask them what they’ve done that day or what they got planned for the day. To ask about their nutrition, are they eating well, when was the last time the doctor saw them, are they hurting, are they still able to perform their usual day-to-day activities, are they needing more help getting dressed, is there something they need that you can get for them?” Tell them you Love them.

They need to know that someone out there knows they exist and cares compassionately about them. If they can wake up every morning feeling this way and go to bed every night feeling this way, then no matter what their medical conditions are, or their prognosis is, they will always have a free smile on their face because they know deep inside that they are not alone, and that there is a purpose for them to keep living.