Shelfari: Book reviews on your book blog

Finding Meaning in Retirement

One of my first memories about retirement was when a rancher in my home town quit riding every day when he was 85 years old.  A year later he was dead.  My father talked about it as though the rancher’s retirement was a death warrant.  It shaped my attitude about retirement, in that there was something  vaguely morally wrong about stopping going to work every day.

I have been retired since March 2011 and have two jobs.  What is interesting about my attitude about retirement is  that I acquired it from my father who retired at age 65 and never worked  another day.  I really do not know how he  made the transition to retirement as he never in his life talked about his feelings.  I do know he made regular trips to …

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Caregiving Several Times Over

A quick update, Carol is recovering from her hand surgery with a cast on her right thumb and lower hand.  That cramps her writing quite a bit.  I am doing a fair amount of caregiving as she currently can’t drive or do tasks requiring two fully functioning hands.

I mentioned earlier that I was engaged in a job search to fill in during Four Mile’s slack season.  Winter just about brings activities to a complete halt at the Living History Park.  The wagon road is a complete sheet of ice, too dangerous for the beautiful Percheron and Belgian draft horses to pull the big prairie schooner.

I got a job!  I am a part time Health Care Security Officer with HSS Inc.  HSS is a large security firm providing security services to hospitals, city …

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Sisterhood and Brain Health for Recovering Caregivers

Once we got our new iPad email working and used the Photo Booth app to take some funny pictures of ourselves, we wondered what to do next with our intriguing Little Buddy.  The problem is not a scarcity of possibilities.  According to official Apple sources, there are over 140,000 iPad apps available—many of them free.  Too many to sort through on our own.

No problem.  Sister Judi–an iPhone owner and aficionado—to the rescue.  She undertook to coach me in advanced techniques of using the “Home” button and also suggested a few challenging and enlightening apps.  High on our list are Angry Birds and Fruit Ninja.  I also learned that she is the creator of her own app—Smart Tot Rattle!

Her next move was to challenge me to a game of Words with Friends.

I’m …

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What is the Caregiver’s Role in an Aging Parent’s Death?

My dad, Frank, died over a year ago at the age of 91.  When he finally came to live in Denver two years before his death, I thought I would be able to help him have a better life, a happier old age.  It turned out that the real job was to support him while he moved closer and closer to death.

As the days of his life grew shorter, my confusion multiplied.  As much I knew he would die one day, I was caught up in Dad’s insistence that he would live to be “at least” 100.  I think it seemed easier to accept this idea than to understand that death was creeping nearer to us with every passing day.

The last days and weeks of Dad’s life were very difficult for all …

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My Elderly Father's Change Of Heart

I am excited to realize that we have been publishing Inside Aging Parent Care for a year and a half now.  In celebration of this most recent anniversary, here is our very first post:

For many of us, it begins with a phone call.  In our case, the call came from my 89 year old father late in the spring of 2008.  He had been released from Waterman Hospital after his third bout with pneumonia a few weeks earlier.  “I’ve been thinking,” he said,  “why am I here when you are there?”

We had often encouraged Dad to consider moving from his home at an assisted living facility in Central Florida to join us in Denver where Bill and I have lived for the past twenty years.   Up until now he had always resisted …

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