Barry Friedman - The Old Folks At Home: Warehouse Them or Leave Them on the Ice Floe

by Barry Friedman

  I added, “Since robots don’t need food, think of the money that could be saved.”

  The pieces fit, the puzzle no longer a puzzle.

  Chet’s artistic skill in making the robots look like real people, under different circumstances would have won him another Oscar.

  Martin Berman, in addition to his role as Executive Director of Restful Bowers, showed his robotic engineering skill in producing the computer heart of the robots. These mechanical people could do everything but breathe.

  Chet, Martin Berman, along with his son Kurt, the Administrator of Assisted Living, and his enforcers, Fredricka Himmler, and the two aides, were all safely stashed away in jail. Their felonies ranged from murder to forgery and embezzlement. They were all awaiting trial.

  Two weeks later, another chain, Motel Eight, bought the assets of Restful Bowers. For the residents, nothing changed.

  Well that’s not entirely true. Harriet, wearing a new pink blouse, sat next to me in the auditorium. The occasion was a ceremony to announce the new name of Restful Towers. It was now Ω i, omega iota, (pronounced Oh my) a Greek expression roughly translated to mean The Last Resort.

  About the Author

  Barry Friedman graduated from Lafayette College in Easton, PA and received his M.D. degree at N.Y.U. School of Medicine. He interned at Mount Sinai Medical Center in Cleveland. During World War II he served in the Naval Medical Corps. He began his career in Orthopaedic Surgery at Great Lakes Naval Hospital and completed his orthopaedic training at University of Iowa Hospitals. For 30 years, he practiced his specialty in Cleveland where he became Chairman of the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery at Mount Sinai Medical Center, and Associate Clinical Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery, Case Western Reserve University. Following his retirement, he moved to San Diego where he became a consultant and Associate Clinical Professor of Orthopaedics at UCSD Hospital. He fully retired from medicine in 1999.

  Friedman began writing while in college, where he served on the editorial boards of all the student publications. While in medical practice, he published numerous scientific papers. Since his retirement, he has contributed magazine and newspaper articles, and has previously published eight novels and two non-fiction works. Two of the novels were given awards presented by the San Diego Book Awards Committee. Friedman and his wife live in San Diego.