Inside Aging Parent Care

May 2012, Bill’s Retirement Update

By Bill May 17th, 2012

Retirement?

Retirement is working out pretty well. I have a part-time job I love. I am writing for this blog every week, a regular discipline that keeps me motivated. Carol and I just completed an eight week writing class at the Lighthouse, a Denver writer’s collective. I have even started a short story. I am using my history degree in my work and my writing, something I never did in thirty years of water treatment or eight years as a counselor.

I am more engaged now than when I was working full time. Most of those full time work years involved rotating twelve hour shifts. The longer I am away from those shifts the more I realize the toll they took. Shiftwork affected my health, my daily energy, my relationship with Carol, and …

Continue reading this post here

Mother’s Day 2012

By Bill May 9th, 2012

View From Pearl Pass

Mother’s Day is an important day on my calendar. I mark the day because my wife Carol is the mother of two wonderful children who love her dearly. I honor her because of the love and devotion she has given them since birth. My life is better because of the three of them. I can share in their love and their bond of kinship, although I came into their lives later.I also honor my mother. She has been gone since 1958, when cancer took her after a terrible illness. It was not a good death, for her or for me. Those were the days when children (I was 15) were kept away from the dying. I barely shared in her decline as my family attempted to act like nothing …

Continue reading this post here

Add a Jewish Mother to the Family (If You Don’t Already Have One)

By Carol May 8th, 2012

With Mother’s Day fast approaching, the motherless among us–like Judi, Bill and me–can probably use a good dose of mother love and advice. And where better to turn than to a Jewish Mother. The following video is courtesy of our friends at the LA Jewish Home.

Congratulations to the LA Jewish home on their Centennial celebration. Social Bookmarking

Technorati Tags: aging, gerotranscendence, jewish mothers, LA Jewish Home, Mother’s Day, motherly advice, taking care of the elderly

Whine of the Ancient Caregiver

By Bill May 3rd, 2012

Victims?

Herewith some caregiving issues that bug me. They aren’t in any order; I put them down as they come to me. Not enough sleep this week, so it is time to complain.

Taking seniors from their homes. Caregivers often become concerned, even afraid about their elderly parent living alone. The aging parent may have health problems, some memory problems, and just do not seem to cope as well as they used to. Their children decide to move their loved one to assisted living, a nursing home, or in with one of them. This may or may not come after consulting with the elder. Well, of course they aren’t living like they used to; they’re old. The wish of the aging parent has to be paramount. We are talking about people who have …

Continue reading this post here

Maybe Dad Really Meant It When He Said “I’m Fine.”

By Carol May 1st, 2012

We’ve been hearing a lot about the recent research showing that elders are happier than twenty-somethings. In fact, it looks like they are happier than anyone—even at the very end of life.

Many are skeptical of this research. From an adult standpoint, an elder’s decline, frailty, pain and illness are quite depressing. How can my aging and ill parents be happy? We sure wouldn’t be in their shoes. The research must be flawed.

Our Ted-talk-tracking friend recently sent us a link to a talk by Laura Carstensen who explores the research in depth and is convinced that the research conclusions are correct. So when Dad told me “I’m fine” the day before he died, he very well might have meant it.

Here is Dr. Carstensen’s talk:

Social Bookmarking

Technorati Tags: aging, …

Continue reading this post here

Inside Aging Parent Care

Tags:

Categories

Archives

May 2012, Bill’s Retirement Update

Mother’s Day 2012

Add a Jewish Mother to the Family (If You Don’t Already Have One)

Whine of the Ancient Caregiver

Maybe Dad Really Meant It When He Said “I’m Fine.”

Recent Posts

Blogroll

Great Stuff

Search