They stink up the entrance!
Posted on 02/26/2006 4:41:16 AM PST by SheLion
A WOMAN in a wheelchair must go outside into the cold weather for a cigarette even though she is 93 - because smoking is banned in her nursing home.
Gladys Gornall, known as Chris, of the Norwood Lodge Nursing Home in Nore Road, Portishead, took up smoking 10 years ago after her husband died.
Daughter Joan Mock, 68, says it is the only thing she has left that keeps her happy.
And she says she fears her mother is more likely to die from exposure to cold winter weather than from smoking.
Mrs Mock said: "She's 93, she's in a wheelchair and she has to smoke outside. Last week I had to stand outside with her with an umbrella over her while it rained. We know it's not politically correct any more, but she is old and she will die of hypothermia rather than smoking at this rate."
Mrs Gornall said: "I'm sick and tired of going out there in the cold. I'm fed up with the whole situation. What else have I got to look forward to? I've got no other pleasures."
Mrs Mock said the home used to have a small room where smokers could light up. But she said the smoking ban in the building has now been enforced for health and safety reasons.
She said: "For God's sake, what can she do? There aren't any other smokers in the home now. This is all she has left as her bit of independence. It's so pathetic."
She said relatives of other residents at the home have sympathised with Mrs Gornall's plight.
The only real health problem the pensioner has is osteoarthritis in her knees.
Mrs Mock said: "She says they aren't going to stop her having a fag."
Mrs Gornall moved into the home with her husband, Albert, in 1996 but he died within weeks of their arrival. She took up smoking soon after his death.
Gill Lee, group operations manager for Belmont Care, which owns the home, said the non-smoking policy had been in place since before Mrs Gornall went into the nursing home. She said: "We've had a policy for years in Norwood Lodge of no smoking, mainly on health and safety grounds.
"Mrs Gornall, her daughter and her social worker had a meeting with the matron in May 2005 to explain to her the no-smoking policy in the home, and this was confirmed to her in writing."
She said none of the staff smoke inside the building. But she would not comment on whether the company's policy on enforcing the smoking ban had been tightened.
And she said allowing Mrs Gornall just to smoke in her own room would be "even worse".
She said: "To allow smoking in their room would cause even more health and safety issues."
Give it awhile. Its coming. Right now, its "for the children." But like smoking, it will get to adults in time.
LOL Good one!
I know what you mean. I've got a beanbag ashtray wedged in the cup holder in the console.
I thought the smell was dissolved into the atmosphere. Or is that just exhaust from cars. I'm confused.
Yep. I have a little cup ashtray that's made for placing in a vehicle's cupholder. I also carry around a little pen-sized stainless steel cigarette extinguisher. I can put a lit cigarette in and it goes out in about ten seconds. I can then safely put the butt in a trashcan.
I have one of those portable ashtrays that you can put your cigarette butt in and mash it to extinquish it, then just fold it up and tuck it away. Its a shame we have been reduced to this and made to feel like second class citizens.
You stink up these threads.
Would you mind stepping back 25 feet?
LOL...you are funny....as in weirdly funny.
I am all for no smoking, but if you have someone near death in a hospital, cancer, accident or whatever and the they have to go to the cemetary to smoke a cig just seems kind of cruel, there would be better times to promote non smoking.
As Rush says, it's nothing more than some folks trying to legislate a nusiance.
I remember in fifth grade smelling something horrid coming from somewhere during the lunch/recess period. I didn't know what it was, but it almost made me sick enough to want to go back indoors. Turns out it was butter burning somewhere in a house that bordered the school's property. My Dad wasn't the best cook back then and he was easily able to re-create this odor some years later.
Imagine if they passed a law banning the emissions of burning butter in certain areas based on some, "Study," that linked it to cancer or some other physical thing. Imagine if there were intensive governmental regulations instituted to safeguard the public from this smell when butter is used in breakfast diners and seafood resturaunts. Imagine them increasing the taxes to more than triple to help, "Burning butter-related ailment," costs to taxpayers for paying for the healthcare of the victims of this odor.
I'd better shut up now. Someone might be getting ideas around here....
nusiance = nuisance
And wheel chair bound and obviously unable to buy cigarettes for for herself. So the compassionate thing to do is to buy her all the cigarettes she can possibly inhale and let her smoke them when ever and where ever she wants.
What is the exact age you've determined that people will be more deserving of condescension than respect?
You have a funny definition of "respect". It's against the rules to smoke in the nursing home. The lady can't get her own cigarettes. So in her daughters view it's respectful to buy her cigarettes, give her a lighter, and then whine because she has to follow the rules of the nursing home where the daughter keeps her.
Are you unable to see this woman as a human being, or does being a smoker strip her of her membership in the human race?
Oh please stop with the hyperbole. Your thinking is warped. The ladies addicted to cigarettes. She's 93. She can't buy cigarettes for herself so someone is buying them for her. And then you're whining because she has to be wheeled outside to smoke them when the rules of the nursing home forbid smoking inside.
Name one good reason they should buy cigarettes for her. And "because she wants to smoke" doesn't cut it. She probably wants to go to a bar, but they won't let her do that. She probably wants them to make whatever meal she wants, but they won't do that. She probably wants to live with her daughter, but the daughter won't let her do that. Face it, she's in a nursing home and she has to abide by the rules. She wants to engage in an unhealthy voluntary activity. The only restriction they put on it is that she has to do it outside. Give it a rest already.
You're probably right. I imagine the Super Neurotics around here are already developing symptoms and drawing up the petitions.
I don't care whether it "cuts" it or not with you, Oberfeuhrer. That is a perfect reason to provide her the cigarettes.
She wants to engage in an unhealthy voluntary activity
What are you, nuts? She's 93 years old!
Are you totally devoid of common sense? Are you so hellbent on judging how other people live that you're completely blind to your own enormous faults, not the least of which narcissistic pecksniffery.
Deacon Douglas has spoken...
Oberfeurer? lol. What would you say if she was an alcoholic and wanted to drink? Would you buy her liquor and let her drink to her hearts content?
She wants to engage in an unhealthy voluntary activity
What are you, nuts? She's 93 years old!
I don't get it. Are you saying that she's going to die soon so it's okay if she smokes? That's what passes for compassion? In that case, she's going to die soon so it's okay if she goes outside to smoke too.
Are you totally devoid of common sense? Are you so hellbent on judging how other people live that you're completely blind to your own enormous faults, not the least of which narcissistic pecksniffery.
I had to look up pecksniffery. Is there any particular reason why you feel the need to end every exchange with a personal insult?
As for common sense, common sense dictates that you don't give a lighter and cigarettes to a 93 year old woman in a nursing home unless you're a total idiot. Houses burn down because young healthy people are careless. And you want a wheelchair bound person to smoke in her room? What's she going to do if she drops her cigarette on the carpet? Or on her bed? You're just not thinking straight. You think that banning smoking anywhere is tantamount to cutting off somebodies head. Priorities Madame Dufarge, priorities.
Please reread the article - there was never any mention of her smoking in her room or unattended.........they had a smoking room for crying out loud.
What most smokers bitch about,as far as the pricing of cigarettes go,is the taxes we are paying. In Mass every package has $1.51 tax added on,and then when they calculate the 5% sales tax,they tax the tax.
I also bitch about the price of coffee---not THAT's overpriced !!!
I love coffee and I love cigarettes so I'm willing to pay the price. I don't buy lottery tickets or booze. We all have choices to make.
I did reread the article. Apparently someone is arguing that she should be able to smoke in her room. From the article:
She said none of the staff smoke inside the building. But she would not comment on whether the company's policy on enforcing the smoking ban had been tightened.
And she said allowing Mrs Gornall just to smoke in her own room would be "even worse".
She said: "To allow smoking in their room would cause even more health and safety issues."
And even if she was going to smoke in a "smoking" room are they going to devote one staff member to wheel her in there and monitor her every time she wants a cigarette? Or would they...gasp...God forbid limit her smoking times???
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