Respecting The Elderly

As I have gotten older I am witnessing a trend that disturbes me. That is the stuffing of the elderly into obscurity. Literally putting them in homes for someone else to deal with, or worse putting them in your own home and forgetting about them.
This group of elderly were the Teachers, the Coaches, the Presidents of Corporations,Doctors, Lawyers, the best of the best left to rot in obscurity,because they had seemingly out lived their usefulness.
When in reality these should be the ones teaching the youth concepts that have been lost, because something new came along.Time after time this new generation has to reinvent the wheel when all they had to do was ask.
The most frustrating thing is ........your thoughts, your ideas, your knowledge is pounced upon, ridiculed, and disrespected.
You are no longer of value, even though multitudes of people sought you out for your knowledge. Even though others outside this sphere of disrespect, still think you are of much value. Your thoughts are important, your ideas have merit. There comes a hopelessness that pervades the spirit. A wound that is so deep, no doctor can fix. A knife of abandonment that has cut open the heart that once served all with an openness and love that all who were near basked in the aura of that love. That love is cut off from the very people who would or could benefit the most.
When the respect is taken away from the hearts waiting to open up and share. The reason for living is taken away and what is left is long hours of waiting for death or a new life. The old life is gone, buried like garbage. Taken out with the trash. The lives you have touched, or things you have accomplished mean nothing.
Who will remember you, each of us has put our mark on the wall of life, hoping we have made a difference. Who,will remember that we still live?