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IN YOUR PRIME
Accident?
Far off the main highway that represents public consciousness, and awareness, is a black news hole known as “elder abuse.”
Far too little is understood about these abhorrent crimes, and this is society’s shame.
Some advocates for the elderly believe there are between one and two million such incidents in a given year, where an older
adult is injured, exploited or otherwise victimized by someone on whom he trusts for protection or long-term care.
“Coming up with real, hard numbers is like trying to nail Jell-O to the wall,” concedes Barbara Dieker of the United States
Administration on Aging. “There are,” adds this federal officer, “a lot of different statistics about elder abuse…”
For example, there are studies purporting that only one in five actual instances of abuse are ever reported. You ask why?
Here then is a case in point:
Joe Marion and his wife Auta (cq) raised two strong sons in the tiny town of Knox City, Texas, north of Abilene by some 50
miles. Here, in this close-knit community of fewer than 5,000, Joe owned a gas station, or two, and according to son Roland,
“Daddy attended the Foursquare Church every time someone opened the doors.”
“He lead the song service many, many years,” Roland remembers, “and for over 20 years he was Sunday school superintendent.”
Joe Marion’s father was a Foursquare minister, and so Joe was just carrying on family tradition.
Life was good back then, but it turned rotten after first Joe was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, and then both Roland’s
and brother Bobby Joe Marion’s wives were attacked by different cancers--breast cancer, and cancer of the brain. Surgeries
were in order.
As so often happens, the family pledged to care for the Alzheimer’s patient, vowing never to call upon a nursing home. But
when clearly they had no choice because Joe Marion wandered, Roland, along with his mother, reluctantly placed their patient
in a local home. Auta later transferred Joe to a second Texas institution, the Munday Nursing Center.
It made sense, because Auta Marion had family (two sisters, one brother) in Munday, while her late grandmother had lived out
her life in this home, being a resident nine years. Auta told friends, “These nurses are older and more mature.”
On August 18, Joe Marion’s wife held to her routines. She visited her life-partner, hectored the aides to take better care of
the hapless patient, and then stole away for a quick luncheon with a sister. At two p.m., she returned to find four aides
grouped over Joe Marion, attending to cuts in his head and alongside his right eye. There also were multiple bruises on his
right arm and wrist.
To this day, some seven weeks later, the Marion family is at a loss to explain what befell the demented, and defenseless,
patriarch. The nursing home is stone-walling, saying only they’re not culpable. For the moment, it’s a he- said, she-said
case. Texas state authorities contend charges of abuse remain unsubstantiated; nonetheless, a so-called second investigation
remains incomplete and open-ended.
The Knox City Marions are neighborly, plain-spoken folks who might have settled for a genuine apology, backed by a promise
from nursing aides to never again mishandle 75-year-old Joe Marion. They didn’t get that, and they’re righteously
disappointed. So, they’ve done the following:
1) They took digital pictures of Joe’s wounds (he required five stitches alongside the right eye) and 2) thereafter hung the
incriminating photos on a
web
site for all to see.
3) Additionally, the
family is offering a reward for information leading to the arrest, and indictment, of the abusive caregiver.
The reward money stands at $1,000. Meanwhile, what appears to be a prima facie case of elder abuse is yet to be entered into
the records, because proof of the obvious crime is absent.
Lastly, in suburban Atlanta, a veteran police detective with haunting memories dating back 27 years, tells reporters that
elder abuse awareness today is where domestic abuse awareness was 15 or more years ago.
Detective Cindy Ash says: “Elder abuse is a lot more common and a lot worse than most people realize.” In other words, we all
have reason for concern and, more importantly, cause for outrage.
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Outrageous Associations
