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In Bucharest, Oana Feels "There is No Substitute" for the Care She Gets at the Rosen Old Age Home
Oana's greatest wish is to be able to walk again. Her eyes well up with tears as she guides her wheelchair backwards to expose her prosthetic legs. Three years ago, within months of tragically losing her husband in a street accident, she underwent double amputation surgery due to severe diabetes. Oana has also suffered three heart attacks in recent years due to the illness, making it difficult for her to endure the physical therapy she needs to recover mobility in her new limbs. "I have a weak heart," she offers. "It is too difficult to walk for long."
But all of Oana's friends at the Rosen Old Age Home in Bucharest, where she has been a resident for 2 ? years, will attest that her spirit is anything but weak. Franca, chief psychologist of the JDC/FEDROM social assistance program which also supports the Rosen Home, explains that Oana is fully independent. "It does not matter that she must move around in a wheelchair," Franca says of the vibrant, 74-year-old resident. "She bathes and dresses herself, and even insists on doing her own laundry." In fact, though doctors were skeptical about Oana's chances to recuperate to the point of taking even a few steps, she was determined to try and requested that she be fit for prosthetics. She had learned at a young age to persevere in the face of loss. Born to a small family in Galatz, northeastern Romania, Oana has no real memories of her childhood because, she says, "I wouldn't call it one." Her father, then the owner of a shipping business, died when she was only seven years old and she also never had the opportunity to call someone "grandma". As a young woman Oana earned a university degree, married and moved with her husband to a town on the Danube River, finding a job as an economist in a canned-fish factory. Later the couple relocated to Bucharest, where she retired after 38 years in the workforce. Three years ago, after her husband's death and her life-altering surgery, Oana became terribly lonely. She hesitantly moved into the Rosen Home, a JDC/FEDROM-sponsored facility where she could be provided full-time care among other Jewish elderly in Romania. "It was too hard to be on my own, and I see now it was the best choice I could have made," she says. "I was very sick and received very good care." Since Oana also cannot read due to diabetes-induced glaucoma, being surrounded by people has become even more essential. Her friends offer to read to her, and she likes to play cards with them. "It feels so good when we visit each other's rooms and enjoy each other's company," she says. "For this there is no substitute." February 2006 |
