The Age of Surrender

When is a senior no longer capable of making their own decisions? It depends on whom you ask

- SHARON J. RILEY

MURIEL SHAW had always said the only way she’d leave home was “feet first.” For Shaw, a retired British Columbia Institute of Technology clerk in her eighties, home was a double-wide trailer in Coquitlam, in what her family describes as the “second-best trailer park in British Columbia.” Shaw was living an independent life and had endured a series of challenges, including the loss of her partner, in 1996, and breast cancer. She was proud to be in her own space and host friends and family. “Home is home” is how her youngest son, Chris Jarvis, explained it. Jarvis often travelled, but he would stop in to stay with his mother whenever he could. As Shaw got older and her health waned, another son moved in with her. This arrangement worked well until Christmastime in 2010. According to Jarvis, as the holidays approached, Shaw didn’t seem herself: she was anxious and confused —“just acting strange.” The family took her to the hospital.