BERLIN ¨C Sonja Miskulin has forgotten her beloved cat, Pooki. She can't remember whether she has grandchildren and has no memory of her nine-hour journey one recent Sunday to forever leave behind her home in Germany.
Suffering from dementia, the wheelchair-bound former translator celebrated her 94th birthday in a Polish nursing home in August. Her daughter sent her there in a bid for a better life and more affordable care.
Miskulin has joined the vanguard of a controversial movement: emigrant nursing home residents. The ¡°Grandma export¡± trend has set hands wringing in Germany, where Munich's leading newspaper denounced it as ¡°gerontologic colonialism¡± and compared it to nations exporting their trash. Yet more families like Miskulin's say it's their best option to provide a dignified old age for elderly parents ¡ª and save money ¡ª amid a lack of affordable quality care at home. One in five Germans would now consider going abroad for a nursing home, according to a March survey by TNS Emnid, one of Germany's biggest pollsters.
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