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Jewel Douglass
Lou is Shelley’s father. Lou is widowed at 70 and lives independently until he is 88 years old, at which point he is diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, has trouble with his memory, and starts to have dangerous falls. He refuses to look at retirement homes, but Shelley worries about him living alone. He moves in with Shelley and her husband Tom, but he is frustrated by the lack of autonomy—over the food, the television, when he can have friends over. Shelley also grows overwhelmed, and she moves Lou to an assisted living facility. There, Lou grows withdrawn, as the facility has mostly women and he feels lonely. When his condition worsens even more, Shelley contemplates placing him in a nursing home, feeling that he needs full-time care. However, they find a place called the Leonard Florence Center for living, which is organized not into rooms but into homes with single bedrooms and communal spaces. Lou gets to determine his schedule around bathing and eating, giving him greater autonomy, and consequently making him feel that he still has a place in the world.
Lou Sanders Quotes in Being Mortal
The Being Mortal quotes below are all either spoken by Lou Sanders or refer to Lou Sanders. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 4
Quotes
Taking care of a debilitated, elderly person in our medicalized era is an overwhelming combination of the technological and the custodial. […] The burdens for today’s caregiver have actually increased from what they would have been a century ago. Shelley had become a round-the-clock concierge/chauffeur/schedule manager/medication-and-technology troubleshooter, in addition to cook/maid/attendant, not to mention income earner. Last-minute cancellations by health aides and changes in medical appointments played havoc with her performance at work, and everything played havoc with her emotions at home. Just to take an overnight trip with her family, she had to hire someone to stay with Lou, and even then a crisis would scuttle the plans. One time, she went on a Caribbean vacation with her husband and kids but had to return after just three days. Lou needed her.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire Being Mortal LitChart as a printable PDF.
Lou Sanders Quotes in Being Mortal
The Being Mortal quotes below are all either spoken by Lou Sanders or refer to Lou Sanders. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 4
Quotes
Taking care of a debilitated, elderly person in our medicalized era is an overwhelming combination of the technological and the custodial. […] The burdens for today’s caregiver have actually increased from what they would have been a century ago. Shelley had become a round-the-clock concierge/chauffeur/schedule manager/medication-and-technology troubleshooter, in addition to cook/maid/attendant, not to mention income earner. Last-minute cancellations by health aides and changes in medical appointments played havoc with her performance at work, and everything played havoc with her emotions at home. Just to take an overnight trip with her family, she had to hire someone to stay with Lou, and even then a crisis would scuttle the plans. One time, she went on a Caribbean vacation with her husband and kids but had to return after just three days. Lou needed her.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
