Other Side of 50

Today I can count more than 20 friends or relatives who are acting as family caregivers for their loved ones. It’s probably the highest number I can remember in my adulthood. My cousin’s wife is caring for her husband, who has oral cancer and is undergoing chemo and radiation. My girlfriend is caring for her [...]

Maybe it’s my aging home, my aging car or my aging office building, but as the days go by, it seems every repair or improvement that is quoted to me is really expensive. It doesn’t matter if it is for electrical work, a piece of kitchen equipment or car repair—the quotes are significant, and the [...]

A few months back a friend told me she was not feeling well and was trying to find an at-home rapid COVID test. She needed the test because in a few days it would be her turn to care for her mother, who has mild cognitive impairment. I offered to go find her a test [...]

Over the last few weeks, my husband and I ventured out to see some friends we had not seen in a long time. It reminded me of one of the things I missed most during the pandemic—sharing a homemade meal with good friends. I forgot how nourishing it can be for both the tummy and [...]

A few weeks ago, I had a two-day stay in the hospital. I’m OK, but my eyes were opened by the changes I saw since my last visit to the emergency room three years ago. I want to share what I experienced on the chance that it might be helpful to others. First, I was [...]

Recently I met a lovely 75-year-old gentleman who retired several years ago. I will call him Tim. As Tim and I talked about his life, I came to understand he had a very small social network. Tim’s day consisted of a lot of television watching and “some puttering around” with his tools. While Tim did [...]

I come from a family of cooks. We associate food with caring for others and pleasant feelings. Gatherings in my childhood included my mother’s mouthwatering pies, my aunt’s homemade squash-stuffed tortellini and my uncle’s oven-roasted fresh turkey. There were always too many appetizers, side dishes and desserts. We left the table stuffed and content. While [...]

This is a column about individual retirement accounts, my dad and doing good. For those of you with an individual retirement account who are over the age of 72, you know you are required to take an annual required minimum distribution, otherwise known as an RMD. Since IRAs are funded with pre-tax dollars, the RMD [...]

Recently I sent a survey to several Silent Generation seniors who are between the ages of 76 and 93. A great deal has been written about their beginnings as a cohort, but my goal was to understand their thoughts and feelings as they pertain to some of the more recent cultural changes in our society. [...]

During the past year I’ve been on more than my fair share of Zoom meetings. Every such meeting has a personality of its own. Take, for example, the Zoom meetings hosted by Community Care Licensing, a jurisdiction Senior Concerns falls under. With hundreds of people on the call, we are provided with guidance concerning COVID [...]