A few days ago, the Opinion page featured an editorial about respecting snow plow drivers.

We do need to give them room to do their job. If we don’t, there could be more incidents like the Weather Channel showed this week. A stupid driver tried to pass a snow plow and ended up going off the road into the ditch on the other side of the plow. If there is snow on the roads, driving the speed limit or higher speeds and passing other vehicles can be very dangerous to both the driver of the offending vehicle and others on the road. Common sense behind the wheel seems to have become a thing of the past.

The plow crew is out there to make the road safer for us. But on the other hand, they do not respect us. Every winter, I have to fight the heavy, salted snow from the road that is thrown over my sidewalk by the county plow drivers. They speed well beyond the posted limit of 25 mph when coming into the residential section of town here. The snow flies high and far off their plows, which is fine for the rural sections of roadways. However when they come into the residential section of town they need to slow down and obey the speed limit.

Wednesday morning I woke to find my sidewalk completely covered by the heavy, slushy snow and it was well beyond the sidewalk and onto the grass. Without accurately measuring, I would guess it was thrown about 2 feet onto the grass. This is a distance of about 10 feet from the curb. That is fine in rural areas, but it is not acceptable in town. Then, at 8:45 a.m., the plow went by again. There was just a bit of slush on the road at that time. When I looked out the window, I was flabbergasted to see that this slush was thrown as far as approximately 5 feet from my porch steps. I’m sorry, but I find this unacceptable. The city plows do a fine job of clearing the streets without this unnecessary throwing of the snow far into our yards.

I am no longer young and shoveling snow is no longer an easy job for me. Risk statistics are not favorable for older people who shovel snow. Now I must weigh the pros and cons of sidewalk snow removal. Do I just let it stay there and accumulate until spring thaws take it away? Or should I risk a heart attack or back injury from shoveling this heavy mess from my sidewalk? Does the county or city care if I should jeopardize my health clearing up the mess they made on my property? I think not.

I would like to live a few more years to see my grandkids grow up, so if I value my health and safety, I will have to opt for letting this snowy mess to melt on its own. My apologies to anyone who walks by, but I will continue to make every effort to keep my walkway and porch steps cleared for the mailman and news carrier.

Wrong for home to turn down dad

My father, Henry, was refused at a local nursing home. He is 97 years old. He has worked hard as a fireman and a carpenter. He served in World War II in the U.S. Navy. He worked on aircraft carriers.

The VA hospital has been great to him. He had respite care at the VA in September for two weeks.

In the second week, a panel of a very wonderful doctor, social worker, nurse, psychologist and nurse practitioner determined it was necessary for him to have people sit with him for three hours at dialysis, so he didn’t try to move around.

I thought this would be the end for him. I did not know that I would get wonderful angels, including my family, to do this. I pay them $10 an hour. This has been going well and my dad gets a bus to and from dialysis every day that he goes on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. He has been on dialysis for over 10 years due to a blocked artery to his kidneys. He swam regularly at the pool until he was in his 90s.

For the past few months, it has become apparent that he needs to be in a nursing home. He was driving up until November 2018, when he had a stroke. He has been falling a lot. We have taken him to urgent care and the Dickinson County Memorial Hospital ER many times for 10 stitches to his arm, two stitches to his head, a broken clavicle and severe nosebleeds. I have asked that he be admitted to the hospital but always the doctors would say: unfortunately he cannot be admitted, as he is a dialysis patient.

For the last few months, I started getting aggressive about him getting into a nursing home. I have been working on paperwork for Medicaid for months.

His VA nurse told me there were no beds at the VA. He was eligible for two more weeks of respite care. They sent all the paperwork over to another nursing home. It was going to happen and most likely the Medicaid would take over after the two weeks.

But Monday, Nov. 18, he was refused by that home’s administration, as they were uncomfortable about the people who sit with him for dialysis.

This is so unethical and unfair, that he was refused by a local nursing home. My dad is a wonderful man and deserved better respect than this.