A Window Bed

A Window Bed by Virginia Burlingame. This is a window into the world of aging –viewed differently by two women who resolve their disagreements in the seemingly narrow world of a nursing home. A window bed serves as a pivotal part of that journey. After a brief period of living with her daughter Margaret Mary’s medical problems necessitate a move to St Anne’s. Nursing Home. This is a mixed blessing for her daughter Jean who openly admits to always loving her mother but not usually liking her. “We never wanted to live together! She’s too fussy too religious and I hate her insistence that everyone be called by their first and second names.” Her mother has her own complaints about Jean. “She doesn’t dress up enough she drinks too much wine and her apartment’s a mess. She’s Godless! And why didn’t she work harder on her marriage? Oh where did I go wrong?” Despite their differences the two are drawn together in the mother’s final year at St. Anne’s. Many events circumstances and even a near love affair help to turn this oftentimes troubled relationship around. The story asks the question do we ever really know one another or is everything merely perception? This novel explores nursing home life which does not always have to own the undesirable reputation attributed to it. It is about the possibilities for growth and change at any age. But it is mostly a snapshot of some lives—brief images of hardships romance humor love and the resolutions that go along with them. It concludes that there is no one way to age artfully. While never shying away from its sorrows the story also celebrates the complex and fulfilling lives of the aged residents their families and their caregivers. Virginia Burlingame MSW Ph.D.is a counseling psychologist and gerontologist who continues to teach write and present programs on aging in senior years. She is the author of Gerocounseling Counseling Elders and Their Families(1995) and Ethnogerocounseling Counseling Ethnic Elders and Their Families (1999).Although her own mother spent eight years in a nursing home and Burlingame like Jean in the story was a practicing psychotherapist she states that this work is not autobiographical. While she does draw on personal and professional experiences she suggests that Jean and Margaret Mary are more interesting than their real life counterparts. See: www.virginiaburlingame.com. . . .