According to the Little Brothers of the Poor network, the second wave of the epidemic was more difficult to bear than the first for the elderly.
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It’s story time, rue George-Sand. In the chic and cold west of Paris on December 17, Chantal, blue hair, facing six octogenarians all ears, tells the story of two Eskimos that their tribe abandons in the forest for lack of food to feed them.
Doomed to die, the two “older than old” make it out alive by fishing and hunting. “Phew!” Sighs the audience. Emboldened by the demonstration of the “strength of character” of the ancestors, Michelle, 84, exclaims: “This is what the elderly go through today. We must not allow ourselves to be isolated! in places like here so as not to feel lonely. “
Since confinement, Michelle no longer plays bridge with her neighbors, no longer receives her friends at home. This former translator has books and phone calls from her grandchildren. And to escape the monotony of masked days, Maison Daélia, which she frequents regularly. Célia Abita runs this structure which welcomes elderly and aging disabled people during the day. It offers “activities that stimulate memory and the body”, without a nurse or caregiver. After the palaver around the tale, Michelle will do some gentle gym exercises. Then, for afternoon tea, Dominique will celebrate his 82th birthday by blowing out a candle on a fruit tart. “We’re good, aren’t we? The speakers are amazing,” laughs Michelle, leaving with her husband hand in hand. Anne-Marie, 89, came “also to seek company”.
“Nostalgia, remorse, regrets”
“Everyone here feels expected without having to comply with a strict and medical protocol, unlike the day hospital “, approves Chantal Removille, psychomotor therapist and… storyteller. “I do believe that we are a pioneer and unique place in France”, dares M me Abita, who hopes for a subsidy from the City of Paris to be able to lower its price which amounts to 60 euros per half-day.
People who push the door are “certainly privileged, admits Célia Abita, but they have especially been completely lost for a few months”. “They have known war. They fought in their work, for their family. They do not understand that one asks them to stay on their sofa, that they are considered as vulnerable people, that they are infantilized” , she notes.
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