as you can, and learn to get the signals from there" (17).
One of the discoveries that Diamond made is that the majority of residents in nursing homes are not, as the public assumes, "abandoned" there by their relatives. Most had spouses or children who visited them regularly. Others had simply outlived their relatives. Also, members of volunteer groups such as churches made regular visits to the homes to cheer the residents.
Perhaps the most revealing aspect of Diamond's book is the dynamic nature of nursing home residency. Residents were constantly moved, or under threat of movement, based on their physical, mental, and financial stability. For instance, separate wards of nursing homes are devoted to short-term, skilled-care and other wards are designated as Medicare and private-pay sections. Some residents had hopes of leaving the nursing homes after completing their periods of convalescence, others had lost all autonomy regarding their future living arrangements: "Each person sat in a chair, or lay in a bed, or waited in a line, often
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