I know that it sounds cliché, but as your parents get older, you need to start to worry about how they might hurt themselves. Hips are especially fragile in older people, as we learned the hard way one day at the grocery store.

My father has always been a self-sufficient person. He made sure that as his kids, we were too. It’s a good quality to have, until you don’t want to ask for help. My father had gotten to this point at the age of 82. He still insisted on going to the store himself, even though he needed a cane and walked pretty slowly (which said nothing for his driving, which was still great).

Well, one day he decided to go to the grocery store as he often did. A wet patch on the floor of the store from some spilled olive oil leaking into the aisle met my father’s shoe. He went head over heels (in apparently a somewhat comical way, according to one of the stock boys) and landed on his side.  Now he mostly gets around in a wheelchair. It sucks, but we’re modifying his car so he can drive it with hand controls. He still needs someone with him at all times, which he hates, and he has to take more medications, which he also hates.

Luckily, after the doctors at the hospital told me what happened, I immediately called a lawyer and we were able to get a settlement which covered all of my father’s medical bills as well as most of his expenses. Since I started the process immediately, we were able to reach a deal with the store, whose proprietor felt terrible, before my father was out of the hospital. If you or anyone you know is the victim of a fall requiring hospitalization, due to the negligence of a property owner, do not hesitate to contact a qualified attorney at the earliest opportunity. It can prevent a bad situation from getting worse.