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Directors Comments:

Hello Valuable Community Members!!!

I am going to discuss a topic that many of us find challenging to prepare for: our end-of-life. I am in my 13th year as your Executive Director and have witnessed many things during this time. Just recently, we helped a lovely family who lived in the lower 48 deal with the loss of their father, who lived here in Fairbanks. Their Dad, a Meals on Wheels client, lived by himself. On a Monday, when our Meals on Wheels driver went to deliver his meal, we knew something was wrong. We attempted to contact the hospital to see if the client was there, called the police to conduct a wellness check, and contacted the family to express our concerns. The police, unless they see something is wrong through a window, cannot enter a home, which left us and the family unable to get into the house. The daughter planned with Bob to send up a key from the lower 48 so the police could enter her Dad’s home to finish the wellness check. On Friday, four days later, the key arrived, and Bob met the police at the client’s home to give them the key for entry. Our Meals on Wheels client and community member had passed away in his chair, but it took 5 days to confirm that.

PLEASE, if you live alone and have no family nearby, please make sure someone you trust has a key to enter your home. What if the gentleman had fallen and lain on the floor for a whole week before we could get into his home! What if he had fallen in the shower and could not get out! These are real-life events that your Senior Center sees every day. No one ever believes it will happen to them, but it can, and it will.

To be proactive, do the following:

1) Give your key to a loved one, neighbor, or trusted friend (or tell them where you hid a spare key) to give access in case of an emergency,

2) keep a phone number on the refrigerator of a person to contact if there is an emergency. These simple but essential steps help everyone live safely at home. Which I know, every one of you wants to do.

Everyone, take good care of yourselves and the ones that you love.

Darlene Supplee Executive Director 907-452-1735