The personhood of the aged

It has been important for me with both my Dad and now my Mum, as they lie in hospital, that I saw them as 'Mum' and 'Dad', not 'an old person'.  And every otehr old person in the room - even the hideous ones with toothless mouths hanging open and drooling - was someone's Mum or Dad, invested with decades of love and service and with a history of deeds, epxeriences and adventures.  True repositories of wisdom.   A person, not an inconvenience, not the slow person in my way, but a person of immense courage and immense value.