In a New York Times story, former Justice Sandra Day O’Connor’s husband, suffering from Alzheimer’s disease, has a romance with another woman, and the former Justice is thrilled. She visits with the new couple while they hold hands on the porch swing. It’s a relief to see her husband of...
Who remembers the Peace Corps? It was a government program, a way for mostly young volunteers to help others while expanding their own world views that goes back to the Kennedy administration. Volunteers served two years in foreign countries. But no one was assigned to Paris or London; rather, they...
Meet Dr. Alan Green. He has a tiny but lucrative practice in Queens. His patients travel from around the country to get prescriptions to drugs they believe will fight aging. Who are his patients? An estimated 5% are fellow doctors. Others have backgrounds in science or are in the upper-income...
Living Trusts are an important service for us, and creating a Trust often inspires people to get serious about life planning. Many of those who are retired or who are nearing retirement begin to make plans for what they hope will be the next twenty or more years. Health and...
Juli Engel was delighted when a neurologist recommended a PET scan to determine whether amyloid — the protein clumps associated with an increased risk of Alzheimer’s disease — was accumulating in her mother’s brain. Her mother, Sue Engel, is 83 and lives in a retirement community in Florida. She’s been experiencing...
A New York Times article regarding one couple’s discussions about moving to a retirement home brought back memories of my own parents’ ongoing dialog. My folks were in their mid-eighties, still healthy and active, but their three-bedroom home on a Florida lakeshore was becoming a burden. After a lifetime of shopping...
The employment landscape for those 60 and older According to Inc. Magazine, there are now more than 76,000,000 Americans reaching the age of 60 and beyond, “and it seems they either can’t or don’t want to stop working.” An article in The Atlantic points out that employment in America of those aged 65...
Apple product lovers are, well, a bit of a cult. Hip and tech-savvy, they’re famous for standing in lines for hours to be among the first to snag the latest product rollouts. Apple ads showcase svelte young people running, posing and stretching into graceful yoga poses. But has Apple begun...
Laurie Scherrer, 55, a hardworking sales executive, found herself forgetting customers and unable to perform simple math calculations. She was diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer’s disease and frontotemporal dementia, which causes deterioration in behavior and ability to understand language. Ms. Scherrer gave herself some time to feel sorry for herself, then took...
A growing number of Americans are unmarried and childless, and they may be facing the prospect of an uncertain, solitary old age. A New York Times article, Single? No Kids? Don’t Fret: How to Plan Care in Your Later Years, by Susan B. Garland, tells how one childless woman has strategically...
As we prepare our Living Trusts, many of us reflect on what we will pass on to our children. Property and other assets will be divided among our heirs, but a legacy can transcend money and material goods. My mother passed on that which really mattered My own parents lived well into their...
"Medicare policy has not kept up with the times.” This, according to Oregon Senator Ron Wyden, one of the authors of bipartisan legislation advocating expanded services through Medicare Advantage. California seniors who qualify will be able to get additional services such as help with chores, safety devices and respite for...
