Aurora Magazine 2020

Aurora

customers.

Marilyn Monroe

She was an elderly lady… correction, a very elderly lady, well-dressed but well-worn at the same time. She waited for a while outside the street-facing window of our cat lounge and came in when the crowds were gone. She didn’t say much but seemed pleased that she was the only person in the cat lounge, and quickly settled in on a couch, sipping a catnip tea and just watching the cats be cats. All seemed well, so our employees and I left her alone in the lounge, but we could see her clearly through windows across from the coffee bar. After a few minutes, just about the same time I lost sight of her, one of our employees quickly came up to me, alarmed, to let me know that our elderly guest was lying in a “yoga corpse pose” on the floor of the lounge. Fearing a “corpse pose” quite literally, I hurried in to find her on the floor, outer layers of clothing off, and cat treats scattered all over her and the floor around her. Naturally, I startled her when I came in, as I myself was equally shocked; the cats, I feel, were equally traumatized. After making sure that she was okay, I asked her to tell me more about herself. Marilyn Monroe (seriously, that is who she introduced herself as) shared some of the most heart-wrenching and sad moments of her life. Now, elderly, she felt that she was completely alone. Both her soulmate and her children had long since passed on; in profound situational irony, she recently found herself aware that she was both yearning desperately for human interaction, but at the same time unable to feel any connection to others around her, which she found extremely disturbing. The only relief from her pain, she stated, was to be around cats and dogs; they gave her comfort, and a kind of companionship that only requires her love in return. Unfortunately, she was not able to keep her pets when she was moved in with her caregiver and felt that taking them away was also taking her life. Marilyn ended our conversation by stating that she wished she was dead. Marilyn’s mental health situation is complex to say the least. It serves as an example of the need for more accessible geriatric mental health care, resources that can provide caregivers with the knowledge and tools to expand care to include mental health and wellness, as well as additional focused research that explores the changes in mental health and cognitive functioning as people age.

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