I’m an adult child with aging parents, and all my life I’ve looked around with awe, observing what people my parents’ age and older have left for their families and their world. Bridges, highways, businesses, savings accounts, good schools, paid off mortgages, parks, protective regulations, Medicare, social security, you name it. Even foreign aid to build … Continue reading
Tagged with parents …
Are Kids Safer When Grandparents Drive?
I’ve just read an thought-provoking research article from the journal, Pediatrics, Grandparents Driving Grandchildren: An Evaluation of Child Passenger Safety and Injuries (freely available, PDF full text or abstract. As a part of this study, the researchers from Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) and the University of Pennsylvania Medical School collected insurance data on 11,850 children who … Continue reading
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 … Continue reading
Moving Aging Parents, Mother’s Move, Part IV: Possessions
A March 12, 2010 New York Times article, Deciding on Care for Elderly Parents in Declining Health, made me think about the process my husband and I experienced with his mother following a stroke. This is the fourth of several postings describing our journey. Read Part I of Moving Mother – Part II – Part III Gently Dismantling 66 Years … Continue reading
Update on My Parents’ Blog
My parents worked hard to figure out (outwit?) the eccentricities of the Blogger site, and they managed to get their new blog up and running. They only needed a bit of help from me. I have made a mental note to think about writing some technology tutorials and attaching them to a technology tutorial posting … Continue reading
Communication: We are Always Children in Our Parents’ Eyes
“We never know the love of a parent till we become parents ourselves.” Henry Ward Beecher Last night on the phone my mom directed me to take care of myself and rest up. She knows the past three years have been well-filled, and often tiring, as my husband and I assisted his mother with post-stroke … Continue reading
Census Information and Aging Parents
I’ve written about seniors and aging parents and how they can interact with technology, computers, urban legends, and scams, but one aspect that I have not touched on is the upcoming census. Dale over at the Transition Aging Parents blog, has written an excellent post about helping aging parents avoid census scams. Census information gathering … Continue reading
Snow Worries and Aging Parents
As a teacher it used to be that I thought about time off from school when snow was predicted. Now I have parent “SnowWorries,” and I rarely get around to anticipating snow days. During a big snow storm, and we’ve had a bunch this winter, my anxiety level is higher than usual. Not crazy high, … Continue reading
After Death Details, Part III: Mother’s Library
In her assisted living apartment mother lived with her well-loved library of books. Though she parted with many possessions and books when she moved from her larger South Carolina condo into a smaller assisted living space, her most prized volumes traveled with her to Northern Virginia. We chose more than a few to keep since … Continue reading
How My Parents Selected a Retirement Community
My parents have moved through three or four retirement periods. At any given time, it seemed like one of them had a retirement job of some type, and my father, until a couple of years ago, accepted regular “fill-in” church assignments, helping out a church for a week or two here and there. They have … Continue reading
Parent Legacies: Modeling Philanthropy
Charitable giving has always been important in my family.The time and energy that my parents, now in their mid-80’s and starting their 61st year of marriage, spent on service to others has, I believe, has contributed not only to their rich lives, but also to their good health. I cannot remember a time when I … Continue reading
Dementia: Caregivers
Committed caregivers make the dementia experience tolerable, and tolerable is about the best we can feel as we live through this terrible disease. My husband and I are caregivers to his mother, but we also have strong, warm, and compassionate caregivers who spend much of the day with her. These women are making our experience … Continue reading
Journaling Legacies
For as long as I can remember my father has kept a journal. I have memories, even from earliest childhood, of dad taking a few minutes to record his thoughts. It did not seem to matter where we were — at home, on a vacation, at the park, or attending one of his many conferences … Continue reading
Parent Legacies
I’ve been thinking a lot about legacies — those intangible gifts that my parents are handing down to me. As I watch my parents get older, and when big and small health issues occur, I wonder what my life will be like without them. I don’t worry about helping them in these next few years, … Continue reading
Dementia Music Therapy: Broadway Songs
Mother Weston’s New York trips were legendary. Each trip included a balance of shopping, museum visits, plays, and Broadway musicals. From the early 1950’s until the mid 1980’s she and father made at least one and sometimes two trips to NYC each year usually for more than a week. Her love of Broadway musicals continued … Continue reading
Oxygen II
Mother was right. We did not know how to correctly put the oxygen tube nose piece on her head. She was agitated for a reason last night and was probably uncomfortable. Today when we went over to visit, Dolma, her caretaker showed us how to operate the oxygen. Dolma helped Mother put it on and … Continue reading
Oxygen!
Mother is winded whenever she walks a short distance. She breathes heavily and her heart races. So hospice has delivered two oxygen containers, one that stays in place and another portable device that can move around with her. The permanent one stays in one place, but has a huge tube that reaches to all of the … Continue reading
Evaluating Health Web Sites – Part II
We all learned to write essays when we were young. Our teachers taught us to introduce the important facts. With web sites the rules are the same. Usually it’s easy to identify significant information about a site, information that indicates whether a site is a reliable resource, but sometimes it’s not so easy. Many web sites often look … Continue reading
Health Info on the Web — Be Careful! Part I
Just about every time I speak with people about health issues they refer to one Internet site or another. This worries me. Too many people are finding too much inaccurate virtual information. Older adult children like me as well as senior citizens are eagerly surfing the web for medical information, however, when we go off … Continue reading
Getting Started With Hospice
Our family member with dementia is now in a hospice program. She continues to live in her apartment and to be helped by the caregivers that she is used to having as a part of her daily life. Mother was clear that she did not want to go back to the hospital for any reason … Continue reading
As Our Parents Age So Do We 