Visited an 'ol friend in an old people's home last week who will be turning 80 in January. We entered from the main reception area on the ground floor where a receptionist let us in and we were asked to sign in. Then he accompanied us to the first floor in the elevators which could only be operated with a key. The first floor is where you might say the mentally and emotionally challenging members were accommodated. I had gone to visit this friend in the same place early last year as well. At that time she had been walking with the aid of a walking stick but in my recent visit she had visibly shrunken in the one year I had been away and looked very weak and frail, her hair also seemed to hang about her face wistfully. As we came out of the elevator the air was laden with the smell of urine. In the beginning you try to hold your breath for as long as you can and of course you realize that that is no solution so you hope that after some time you would get used to it but for as l