There are classes for the mothers of babies but there's no helping with your mum and dad growing old.
有为婴儿母亲开设的课程，但对你的父母变老没有帮助。
Old people' s wards are hell for old people. Geriatric wards are insane and in chaos. A toothless woman screaming when left alone, a cry that reaches the high hospital ceiling. A woman effing and blinding-the polite curtain will not protect her from the indignity of a nappy change. A woman who lives the same moment in repeat, dressed up for going home in a bright red, over the dressing grown, asking for the key to her house, saying over and over: “Am I going home today?”
老年人的病房是老年人的地狱。老年病房充斥着精神错乱，混乱不堪。一个牙齿掉光的女人独自一人时会尖叫，尖叫声直冲医院的天花板。一个女人在优雅的窗帘上胡乱涂抹，并不能保护她免受换尿布的羞辱。一个女人重复着同一时刻的生活，穿着一身鲜红色的，成熟衣服回家，询问她家的钥匙，一遍又一遍地说：“我今天要回家吗？”
And though my mum, by the time she was released, knew that her life was charmed compared with the lives of the world’s refugees. It seems to me as if the plight of old people, while not a horrible as the plight of refugees, shares some of the horror. Just as we live in a society that hasn't caught up with technology, the kind of moral choices it gives people, we also live in a world that hasn't kept up with its ageing population. We have the advances in medical science and technology that have kept people alive longer, but not the advances in how to treat our ageing population, Society is lagging behind the old, failing and falling.
尽管我的母亲在被释放时知道，与世界难民的生活相比，她的生活是吸引人的。在我看来，老年人的困境虽然不像难民的困境那样可怕，但也有一些可怕之处。正如我们生活在一个没有赶上科技的社会，科技给人们带来的道德选择一样，我们生活在的世界也没有跟上人口老龄化的步伐。我们在医学科学和技术方面取得了进步，使人们活得更长，但在如何治疗老龄人口方面却没有进步。
There are certain small but piercing similarities between the treatment of the old and the treatment of refugees. The old are often displaced from their homes, moved out against their will; decisions are often made for them that they have no say over. Often, they are treated as fools or halfwits, crowded together in one place, given clothes that don’t belong to them, treated as fallen tribe, incapable of any individuality. Nobody imagined my mother was a secretary of the Scottish peace movement, a primary teacher, a lifelong socialist, a witty woman. Out of hospital, my 85-year-old mum said: “going into hospital at my age puts years on you. God save from old people's wards. You never think of yourself as old. You look across the ward and think, am I like that?”
老年人的待遇和难民的待遇之间有一些微小但尖锐的相似之处。老年人往往背井离乡，不得已从家中离开；决策往往为他们做出，他们却没有发言权。通常，他们被视为傻瓜或笨蛋，挤在一个地方，穿着不属于他们的衣服，被视为落后的群体，没有任何个性。没人能想象我的母亲是苏格兰和平运动的秘书、小学教师、终身社会主义者、智慧的女人。出院后，我85岁的母亲说：“在我这个年纪住院会让你长寿。上帝保佑你远离老人的病房。你永远不会觉得自己老了。你看着病房，思考，我是这样吗？”
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