After their retirement, my parents loved to walk along the pathways in the nearby state park.

It was there they noticed the first signs. My mom said she noticed my father wasn’t swinging one of his arms while walking and he was stumbling over small roots.

Soon after they came to visit me in California, and I noticed it, too.

I asked my mom if she thought Dad had had a small stroke. I noticed his arm was not swinging and his hand was clenched. It seemed like my dad had a bit of a blank stare...

It’s a family legend.

My two sisters and I were on a car trip with our mom and dad. I think we ranged in age from 6 to 10. We were driving home from an outing at 4 p.m. Dad asked us, “Who wants to have an ice cream?”

Of course the three of us squealed with delight as our dad drove to the parking lot of the Friendly’s Ice Cream Shoppe. Instead of stopping, he drove right by. When we cried in disbelief he told us, “You’d better get used to it—life isn’t always fair.”

We were shocked and dumbfounded....

After their retirement, my parents loved to walk along the pathways in the nearby state park.

It was there they noticed the first signs. My mom said she noticed my father wasn’t swinging one of his arms while walking and he was stumbling over small roots.

Soon after they came to visit me in California, and I noticed it, too.

I asked my mom if she thought Dad had had a small stroke. I noticed his arm was not swinging and his hand was clenched. It seemed like my dad had a bit of a blank stare...

Part two of a two-part series

Part one in this series highlighted five ways we can help our parents plan in advance of an unexpected hospitalization, including establishing an advanced directive and durable powers of attorney, making their healthcare wishes known, listing children on HIPAA forms at their physicians’ offices, documenting and sharing family and personal medical history, and communicating medical insurance information.

This week’s column brings to light ways we can be advocates for...

Part one of a two-part series

The phone rings. Your 80-year old mother has fallen. They suspect she has broken her hip. An ambulance is on its way.

Whether the relationship with your mother is strained or loving, you live near or far, you are her only child or one of six, most likely you will play a role in her recovery.

Seniors often feel hospitalization is “overwhelming and terrifying.” They say doctors expect them to understand complicated instructions and make decisions while they are...

Our new house brought with it many new things: a new address, a new location and new neighbors.

I find it odd that people in the market for a new home would spend so much energy deciding on the location and price but give so little attention to who their neighbors might be. Some neighbors change lives forever.

Not long after my husband, Peter, and I moved into our home in Westlake Village, we hosted a “meet your neighbors” cocktail party. Neighbors arrived, mostly two by two, husband and wife,...

For many of us, getting fit is an ever-present entry on our to-do list.

Not so for Mike McAdam.

Since April 2012, McAdam, 41, a recreation coordinator at Goebel Adult Community Center, has lost an incredible 225 pounds.

“Last year at this time I would dread walking to the front desk to greet visitors,” he told me recently. “My knees hurt. I was tired and winded, and finally said to myself, enough is enough.”

McAdam joined a gym and began working out but then tore his meniscus, a knee...

Each time I think of my mother in-law, Mary, in her assisted living facility, I feel sad.

While today she is in a safe, nurturing environment and is surrounded by people she now calls her friends, I wish the journey we traveled to get her there hadn’t been one filled with anger, anxiety and frustration.

Previously, Mary lived in an up-and-down duplex that her husband built at the New Jersey shore. After her husband died, Mary spent winters living with my husband and me in Westlake.

For several...

You know that stage of life between being a young, healthy, vibrant 20-something and needing medication reminders and Lifeline pendants?

I think I, and many of my friends, are there.

It’s that time of life when a simple gadget newly introduced into your life could make living just a little easier. We are still vital, competent people; we just appreciate a tiny bit of help now and then.

Here’s my list of my favorite life-enhancing gadgets for boomers.

The first item on my list might...

It was Stephen Covey who said, “ Begin with the end in mind.”

That got me to thinking. What regrets do people express as they near the end of life, and what actions can we take now so we don’t have similar regrets?

In her book, “The Top Five Regrets of the Dying,” palliative care nurse Bonnie Ware shared the most common regrets she heard from her patients.

With 2013 approaching, the regrets Ware identifies offer food for thought to those of us in the second half of life as we take yet another...