While I was growing up, I'd hear, occasionally, about someone having to go to a "rest home" or an "old folk's home." As the decades slipped by, the term "nursing home" came into vogue. Regardless of the name change, they were all warehouses for those tough folks who actually survived a stroke or who had extremely crippling arthritis. Some were suffering from the effects of polio and could no longer be cared for by family. Of course, some had "senile dementia" and needed to be "put in a home."