HERRAMIENTAS DE LA CALIDAD

The younger elderly people encountered prepared their move themselves, whether or not they moved w ith a moving firm. The situation is different among the old-old people aged over 80 or the elderly people w ith disabilities w ho are particularly dependent upon the help provided by others. Finch (1989) asserts that it is quite incorrect to assume that elderly people are necessarily dependent upon their kin or anyone else just because they are old. She reminds us how even people over 80 are com petent and able to live independently, even if they have some physical impairment. However, she contends that extreme old age is a time popularly associated w ith greater dependence upon one's relatives. On the occasion of the move, those people are nearly forced to p u t themselves, to speak literally, into other people's hands. Mme Debray, a 68 year-old w om an using a wheelchair, could not handle anything. She accompanied her brother, w ho moved her stuff. But she directed the operation and took care of her medication. Moving is physically demanding. Mile Bolduc, a 89 year-old w om an w ho moved one m onth after a stay at the hospital, w ho was very frail at the time of the move and w ho could hardly walk, did not even attend the move. Her physical capacities h ad left her, as she often repeated. By getting older, as she explained to me, one loses memory, dexterity and strength. As such, as she p u t it herself, she became unable to take care of herself or her house and still less of her move. Perhaps,

her case reveals that the anxiety of the move is also a bodily anxiety; that it is bodily demanding.

Moving does not only highlight the limitations of the ageing body. It also reveals how culture and poHtics are inscribed in the body (Featherstone and H epw orth, 1990; Vincent, 1999). It defines those limitations. This becomes clear in the case of Mr Richer w ho had to p u t himself in the care of others. Mr Richer w as apprehensive of moving day, perhaps even more of the feeling of powerlessness, the incapacity to take an active p art in it. Mr Richer had to move in emergency into a residence on 19th April, tw o and a half months before the end of his lease; he moved w ith only a few belongings w ith the help of a health care worker: a metal chest containing im portant papers, a tube of toothpaste, toilet products, shirts, ties, pants, underwear, his dirty linen, a radio, pyjamas, sheets, slippers, socks, an umbrella and a raincoat. A nd he left everything else behind him. Mr Richer could not take care of his stuff by himself. He had to w ait for some help to em pty the apartm ent, and w ait for other people's convenience. He had to w ait for 3 weeks before his friend, Marcel, gave him a hand. He also had to w ait until 22nd May for his sons to move m ost of his stuff and again until 26th May for Judith, one of his friends, to help him bring back the last items. People like MUe Bolduc and Mr Richer are relieved when they are taken into care. MUe Bolduc w as relieved when Mathilde took care of the move, whereas Mr Richer w as reUeved w hen his chUdren took care of his things because he could not afford to p ay even the superintendent who offered to move his stuff for $145. But this help exacerbates the loss of agency. It makes m ore concrete the feeling of loss, of no longer being capable of assuming responsibUity for one's things and oneself. This help that is so im portant from the physical as weU as from the moral point of view is a double edge. It also materialises the loss of the self. Mr Richer had to shy aw ay when the time came to concretely handle things. He had to accept becoming an extra. On moving day, Mr Richer w as even asked by his sons to sit near the trader in order to give the impression that he w as

checking the contents; let us just remember that, ironically, Mr Richer is blind. Mr Richer stayed there for approximately 2 hours, sitting on a chair, leaning on his cane. He did it w ithout complaint. W hy complain in any case? Did he really have any choice? The best he could hope for w as to p u t himself in the hands of his sons, to let them take care of him and his things. This is probably w hy the elderly people w ho could afford it moved w ith the help of a moving firm w ithout any hesitation; the help provided by the m arket allowed the person to remain in control, to believe that he or she is in control.

In attem pting to capture the principles of circulation of this help, we cannot p u t in brackets the materiality of the bodies, of the tasks and of the things as G odbout does, however. Otherwise, we simply faü to understand w hy elderly people w ho are almost entirely dependent upon the help provided by others can be so reluctant to move, w hy they can be apprehensive of the chore of the move to such an extent. Put another way: how they m ay be reluctant to have to rely u pon others and to face their loss of agency. Thus, the loss of physical capacities probably exacerbates the anxiety of the move, the apprehension of being physically capable or not to cope w ith the move. It shows how ageing, as the loss of agency, as the loss of one's control over one's m aterial environment also gets constructed through mobility. It extends the range of the ageing body beyond w h at Mowl, Pain and Talbot (2000) have called the 'homespace'. Moving in old age, moving concretely, is then in a sense to abandon oneself to the hands and the cares of others.