Andy Griffith Likes Medicare Too
Andy Griffith, of timeless Mayberry fame, stars in a new video celebrating the 45th birthday of Medicare, today, July 30, 2010. On this date in 1965 President Lyndon Johnson signed Medicare into law.
Griffith, now 84 years old, shares his enthusiasm for Medicare and for the upcoming improvements that will occur over the next several years. These changes include closing the doughnut hole, cheaper prescriptions, free check-ups, and more.
“See what else is new! I think you’re gonna like it!” says Griffith.
Here’s Andy’s video. What fun from one of the most straight-arrow and trustworthy actors in our parents’ generation.
iPad for Dad, #12 – Adding a Keyboard!
I strongly recommend adding a keyboard to a senior parent’s iPad if typing is important! Dad thinks it’s a “game changer.”
Over the past three months he’s used his iPad in a variety of ways, but when he wants to type more than a word or two, he is frustrated by the iPad’s touch keyboard.
I purchased a keyboard at the Apple store, and yesterday when I took it out of the box, Dad was typing away on the legal pad within two minutes. He’s a quick study. By the time I left a couple of hours later, he had typed several half-page memos and journal entries. He especially likes that he can type on the yellow pad and then e-mail his thoughts with just a couple of touches. Because Dad is at heart an editor, he wants to correct his typos, so the new keyboard makes that much easier as well.
Printing is next, but my parents’ wireless printing is not working just now. And also in the near future is a word processing app. Read more »
Senior Parents: What a Difference a Word Makes
Words matter, especially words that describe people who are aging. In every day conversation, disrespectful phrases such as “old people” or “old folks,” are commonly used. My parents and many of their friends detest these comments.
This week I listened to a podcast of a panel discussion, produced by a well-known media outlet, and buried in the interesting content were comments such as “too old” and “not all there.” So many of these words emphasize the gap between older and younger people. The problem is ageism, plain and simple.
Virginia Mennonite Retirement Community Supportive Language Card, Side 1
Growing old is a normal part of life, and while it can be hard work, most people manage it quite well with intellects intact.
Yet keeping a sense of self, not to mention pride, is a daily challenge — maybe this challenge should even be added to the activities of daily living (ADL). Older seniors navigate a minefield of unintentional (my dad calls them tacky) comments and references designed to trivialize, and it’s no small challenge. The International Longevity Center, founded by the late Dr. Robert N. Butler (NY times Obituary), posts this short article, Old Age has Value in Today’s Youth-Oriented Society by Ithaca College Gerontology Professor John A. Krout. Dr Krout also heads the Ithaca College Gerontology Institute.
Some communities are trying to solve the problem.
Education and Dementia Risk
New dementia research conducted at the University of Cambridge finds that the brains of people with more education appear to be better equipped to deal with the effects of dementia. The announcement from the university reviews a number of past brain research results that connect education level with dementia, and then describes the new research appearing in the journal Brain. The University of Cambridge research finds that, while people often have the same brain pathology that leads to dementia, education makes a difference in the way people (and their brains) cope with the manifestations of the disease. A PDF of the article, Education, the Brain and Dementia: Neuroprotection or Compensation, is freely available at the journal website.
A BBC article, Education Helps Brain Compensate for Dementia Changes, provides additional information as well as a terrific graphic. At the bottom of the article is a short, three-minute interview with lead researcher, Carol Brayne.
Good-bye Daniel Schorr
Daniel Schorr died yesterday at age 93. In addition to being an amazing newsperson for more than 65 years, he also set an example for all of us — aging parents and adult children — who want to stay engaged and keep working long past traditional retirement age. Schorr experienced occasional health issues, and Scott Simon mentioned this morning on Weekend Edition Saturday that he recently started using a walker when he came to National Public Radio. Yet he worked, wrote, broadcast, and gave history lessons — a lot of history lessons — right up to a few days before he died. Boy, did he love his work.
For as long as I can remember my family has always been an informal Daniel Schorr fan club. Just after Watergate, he made a speech in central Illinois, I think at my college, but I am not sure of that. In any event, when my father and mother heard he was coming, they set aside the time for the whole family to join me to hear Schorr’s lecture. When he stood up for principle, we cheered, and of course we really cheered when he found himself on the enemies list and for the rest of his life considered the designation a badge of honor. Once we heard him say, on NPR of course, that the enemies list was almost a greater honor than his Emmy Awards.
Mom and Me: Thoughts on Marginalization and Aging
Mom, Her Mom, and Me - 1973
Mom, Her Mom, and Me - 1973
From Mom to Me
As we age, we are treated differently, make no mistake about it, but until I felt it myself, it never rang true. In my professional life, from time to time I observed how people are marginalized – individuals with mental illness, immigrants, international students, people of color. Now, after years in college and ministerial circles, I’ve aged, and I sometimes feel marginalized because of my age. Someone might speak to me in a falsetto voice, pay no attention to my opinions, or worse still, not offer me a leadership role of some type. Sometimes I feel that young adults are patronizing. As I became more aware of ageism, at first I was perplexed, then angry, and finally curious. Is this a rite of passage for each generation?
Introducing… My Mom and Me: Two Perspectives
Mom, Her Mom, and Me - 1973
Tomorrow I will upload the first in a series of posts featuring a dialogue between my mother and me on a variety of topics that relate to aging, senior parents, and adult children.
Mom and I often talk about aging issues, occasionally heatedly. Sometimes our initial perspectives diverge, but the longer we talk, the more we discover how much our views have in common. The differences of opinion almost always arise because she has many more life experiences than I do and because I still have things in my life that she misses. Then there are the health issues.
As we worked on tomorrow’s submission, the drafts travelled back and forth, and we discovered the same thing — that our views about the aging landscape are not so different, but when they are it usually is because we occupy different places on the aging continuum.
Our discussion will be posted in two parts: From Mom and From Me. Our first topic is marginalization and aging. Please stay tuned!
Becoming A Grown-up Child
One day in April 2007 my husband and I were the adult kids in our families — we are the only adult children
— and the next day we became what we laughingly call “real grown-ups,” helping first one, then two, and increasingly all three of our parents. It’s time to give back, and we do so willingly and happily. However the process is not easy, and it is not free from anxiety and tension. Check out the As Our Parents Age About page to learn more about the mission of this blog.
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As Our Parents Age by Marti Weston is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.
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