wamberal

21 hours ago, NanLaew said:

Unless there's an unwieldy number of guests, this sounds like a great idea. There's plenty places with views of the river as well as dinner cruises. There are also popular places with views of the Bangkok skyline.

 

http://www.bangkok.com/top10/top10-restaurants-riverside.htm

https://www.10best.com/destinations/thailand/bangkok/restaurants/waterfront-dining/

 

The toughest bit will be the logistics of herding them all to either venue.

Thanks for that.  

Thanks everybody, for your comments and suggestions.

I am sort of assuming that a big celebratory dinner would be a good option, somewhere in BKK.  Once upon a time I would have known where to go, now I am pretty much out of the loop.

Traditional Thai food, of course, probably near the river.  

Bring them to Australia??  It would be wonderful, but the old mother cannot fly, and the two unmarried sisters would not get visas, in all probablity.

So it will have to be in Thailand.

I would like a bit of advice please.  My wife will turn 60 next year, I want her to have a wonderful celebration.  We live in Australia now.  She still has a fair number of former college and university friends in Thailand, plus a handful of immediate family.  BTW, I lived and worked in Thailand in the eighties, so have a fair, but limited, appreciation of the customs and traditions.

Any advice would be highly appreciated. 

Thanks again, Sheryl.

A further development, yesterday the news was that he has not been discharged.  His condition has worsened, apparently, so perhaps nature will take its inevitable course.

Thanks again, Sheryl.  I hope the old chap has a peaceful end, he has lived a good life, a wonderful husband and father.

If I had been thinking a bit more clearly I would have insisted that he be taken to somewhere like Bangkok Christian Hospital, rather than the nearest public hospital.   No disrespect to the public system, it sounds as though they are doing an adequate job, but I would have liked to make things as comfortable and pleasant for him as possible.

It sounds to me as though it is too late for a nursing home.

Thanks again, Sheryl.  I had already mentioned Golden Years to my wife, together with a few others that I found on google.

They think of themselves as living in  Bangkok.  The second daughter has a small jewellery business there.  My wife is the eldest.

The family home is in Ekachai 119.

Thanks again for all the responses.

I have offered to pay for whatever options they can find, cost is not an issue.  

I have done a few years of voluntary work in nursing homes here in Australia, and had some limited training, so I have some understanding of the issues.

Thanks for your post, Sheryl.  The family - my family - have not done any research as far as I know.  They have been totally exhausted by the demands on their time and their emotional and physical energy looking after the father for the last few years, and of course, the mother too, although she is at least able to toilet herself!!!

It was an act of desperation for my sister-in-law to call an ambulance and take him to the nearest hospital.  He had refused point blank to have any help in the home, and he had also refused point blank to consider any help or facility outside the family home.

The whole family assumed that he would pass away, my wife flew up, another of his daughters is flying from the US (a trip which she can ill afford, both in terms of the fare, but more importantly, the risk to her employment), but he rallied, is now tube fed, which is supposed to happen every two hours, and of course also needs other intensive nursing.

i do understand that it is up to the family to look after him, but I know that they are really struggling.  That is why I am looking for other options.

For the record, I do understand a fair bit about Thai culture and traditions, I worked at one of the power utilities for several years in the eighties.  I also worked in Hong Kong for a number of years, so also understand a lot about Chinese culture and traditions as well.

My father-in-law was admitted to hospital a week or so ago, his family assumed that he was at death's door.  He is certainly pretty well done for, from all accounts, but he has rallied a bit in hospital, is accepting tube feeding, shows few signs of knowing what is going on, but is alive.

My family has been told to take him home.

I would like to explore what other options there are, it is a huge burden on my two unmarried sisters-in-law, who are also expected to care for their mother who is not far behind him, and one of fhem also runs a small business.  My wife and I, who live in Australia, provide generous financial help, of course.  My wife is currently in Thailand.

What options are available?  It seems to me that some kind of palliative care, maybe a move into a nursing home, maybe we could employ nurses to help at home?


The old chap refused to consider going into a nursing home, and also would not allow any nurses or similar outside help, but from what I can gather, he is too far gone to put up any resistance now.  

He has been a wonderful father and husband, we all want him to have as much dignity and also as much peace as he can in his dying days.  But I am also keen to look at ways to reduce the awful burden that falls on my two sisters-in-law.

My wife's family has just been told that they have to take the father out of hospital and care for him at home.  He is currently in a public hospital, I assume that this is because his condition has stablised, there is no medical intervention available, he is tube fed (every two hours!!) and just get him out of here please.  Also of course he has to be moved regularly to ensure that he does not develop bedsores.  I can kind of understand the hospital's viewpoint, but this is pretty tough on the family.

i told my wife to look around for other options, other than taking him home.  The only place I could see is "Golden Years Hospital".  Are there any other options?

That is an absolutely wonderful explanation.  Many, many thanks.

Many thanks for the helpful responses.  My wife flew in to BKK late last night, I am expecting a call from her soon.  One of the other daughters is flying in from the US.

I cannot see this topic anywhere, would really appreciate a bit of info about what to expect in terms of the timeline for the observance of my father-in-law's passing.

My wife is now en route to Bangkok (we live in Australia), she did tell me roughly what would happen after he passes away (he is at death's door right now) from memory she talked about 8 days?  Could have been more.  Anyway, I need to start looking at a few logistical issues in terms of planning for our Christmas trip that we usually take to visit my sister and her husband in country New South Wales.

Any information would be gratefully received.

Thanks,  Sheryl.  Yes, pretty sure it is only one ear that is affected.

My Thai sister-in-law has impaired hearing in one ear.    Anybody out there have experience either with Cochlear implants or something similar for people with pretty bad hearing?

Interested in some of the comments on this thread.  I am looking at retirement options.  My wife is Thai, I lived and worked in Thailand for some years, so have a pretty good understanding of the pros and cons.

i am interested in a full service retirement facility, ideally one that has all the bells and whistles, including a nursing home, if that is needed, eventually.

Neither of us has children, my wife has two younger unmarried sisters who still live in Thailand.  I want to make sure that all three of them (my wife and her two sisters) are adequately provided for.  

As Nancy said earlier (and this is definitely my wife's opinion), you cannot rely on paid help.   The only way to go is either totally independently (with whatever family/friend support you can rely on) or totally on some sort of contractual basis.  The latter is what I am interested in.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.   I will have a look at Care Resort.

What is the point of this thread? A bit of self-congratulations?

Surely there is a better American equivalent to Thai Visa?

So, any news?

Well, that was a wasted ten minutes or so.

Here's a tip, for what it's worth. Stop referring to yourselves as "expatriates". By definition, an expatriate is somebody who has a home country, which he or she is now living away from.

Perhaps something like "long-term residents" would make more sense, and might actually mean something to the Thai authorities.

One possibility is to contact your embassy, there might be some kind of association, there used to be an Australian Association, for example.

So, any updates? Again, fairly recently posted on an Australian rugby league forum, there was a story about a four team competition starting up this year, with another two teams to join next year.

<deleted> me, I realize we just had a full moon the other day but is there something in the air today that is bringing out the soon-to-be zombie topic starters?

Yep.  It's weird, isn't it?

Or it would be, if there weren't so many of them.