Mourning.

After the recent presidential election, the one (lesbian) sister of my one (former) (assisted living client) with (disabilities) observed that we were in a mourning period, and everyone was having a mourning response, lamenting all the futures that will not be, and sensing the many things that will come to pass.

I've increasingly realized that that's how I've been feeling about eldercare.

I had been discounting the likelihood that that sector would ever get fixed enough for me to return to it in the near- to medium-term, but still, a small part of me had hoped that somehow it would, and some late-stage plan of Harris's did address the wage issues that were going on, at least in part, and that could have been the start of something, maybe just maybe, where somehow something that made sense would have cropped up in a year or two or three and then I could have re-entered it in a worthwhile job that fit, maybe just maybe.

And now, it's like that door is slammed shut, and farewell to those years of my life making inroads into yet another professional future that turned out to be a mirage.

Recently, too, when I was back visiting the city that I used to live in, I stopped by the resthome where I used to work, and staffing problems have apparently begun to hit there, too...  Several people told me that the new people hired in just come and aren't that good and then leave, all very quickly, and no-one is staying.

Basically, I think it's a decently well-run place, and many older workers are there through inertia, but as those numbers have hemorrhaged, you're starting to get the wage compression thing hitting even "the good places," where people aren't just getting paid enough overall there and an entry-level job at Target is paying pretty similarly to those "professional" jobs that require pretty big time investments in certifications etc., so, you just don't have good dependable commonsense people entering the field, because why would they.

Sigh.

Just not good, and again, so many wasted years of my life, chasing something professional that crumbled right when I got there.