Monday, October 23, 2006
THE COST OF DYING
or more specifically the cost of dying in a nursing home has once again come to my attention.
My mother died of Alzheimer's a few years ago. She spent the last two years of her life in a nursing home which cost a total of $100,000. At the time it seemed like a lot. Today a relative of my husband's is in a nursing home in the Cleveland area, a Catholic nursing home, which seems to be run by nuns. It's a lovely facility with Catholic symbols all over the place, and a chapel where there is Mass on Sunday. If I ever have to spend time in a nursing home, I hope it's one like this one.
All of the rooms are private, a vast improvement over those with semi-private rooms and no privacy for the residents.
But the cost! One year in this Catholic facility costs $87,600. Yet even at that high rate of expense this facility solicits the relatives of residents for donations. The most recent fundraiser that came to our house requested anything from a cake mix to financial contributions. A cake mix??!! They collect $87,600 from each of their residents every year, and they can't afford a cake mix? It simply boggles the mind!
