Other Side of 50
Andrea Gallagher, President of Senior Concerns, authors a bi-weekly column for the Thousand Oaks Acorn titled “The Other Side of 50,” focusing on life planning, positive aging and Boomer transitions.
Andrea Gallagher, President of Senior Concerns, authors a bi-weekly column for the Thousand Oaks Acorn titled “The Other Side of 50,” focusing on life planning, positive aging and Boomer transitions.
In 1988, at the age of 58, my father was laid off from his job as a lighting engineer at GTE Sylvania. Thus began his forced retirement. My mother worked two more years and left her job in the school system on her own terms. Both had vastly different experiences exiting their jobs. My father’s [...]
I’d like to start a campaign to encourage older men to address their health issues with their doctor. I have a dear sixty-something friend who recently expressed frustration because her husband refuses to get medical attention. Statistically, men are more likely than women to be stubborn about seeing a doctor, even when they are [...]
When it comes to taking prescription medications, I am fortunate that I take only one medication and it’s a generic one. I have taken this medication for years now. Each time I get a refill, I receive the same familiar yellow colored, flat oval tablet with tapered ends. I don’t use a pill dispenser since [...]
Last week my husband and I joined a Zoom call with my mother and her financial advisor. It was an annual call to go over my mom’s needs and goals in the coming year. My husband and I are my mother’s partners in her financial decisions. Up until five years before his death, my father [...]
I call January my health month because it is when I schedule my annual doctor appointments, with my primary care physician as well as the specialists I see. One certainty is that almost all of us will have an annual wellness exam or an appointment to address a specific health concern in the coming year. [...]
Years ago, I remember getting permission to go into my mother’s purse to get a piece of gum or hard candy. Inside was a veritable treasure trove of items for a young girl to examine. Lipstick, a compact, eyeliner, a hairbrush, a calendar, a pen, an address book, an embroidered cloth handkerchief, keys, a nail [...]
If you are not traveling to see family or have relatives staying with you over this holiday, you may have some downtime on your hands. When many of us are juggling schedules and working on a never-ending list of to-do's, an organized space can seem like something nice to have rather than a priority. [...]
Many older adults are relieved that most people no longer feel the need to wear face masks. The reason is one you may not suspect; Unmasking gives us the ability to lipread. Lipreading is defined as the art of being able to see speech sounds. It is often called speechreading because people use other [...]
Ageist thinking has been a staple of American culture for hundreds of years. How many times have we heard these sentiments being touted as facts? Being old is a bad thing; older adults aren’t fit for work; older adults need protecting; older people are slow and stuck in the past; and older people have less [...]
Many years ago, when my husband Peter and I lived in New Jersey, he took the train to Manhattan for work. It was far from a glamorous experience. Cutting it close each day, (because he wanted to squeeze out every minute of sleep in the mornings) he jockeyed for a parking spot in the [...]