Other Side of 50

When most people hear the words “planned giving,” their eyes glaze over. In the over-50 population, there’s a general lack of awareness and understanding about the concept. This is too bad, because with the collective wealth of baby boomers, their planned gifts can have significant social impact. Planned giving is the process of making a [...]

I’ve trained my mom to be a case manager for seniors. Well, not really, but linking our daily conversations along with her 85 years of life experience, my mom can give some pretty good advice when asked. Mom has known her close friend Bernadette since high school. They both married their hometown sweethearts, and the [...]

Today’s baby boomers range from 55 to 73 years old. Studies show that “gray divorce”—marital splits among senior and nearly senior citizens— is increasingly common. According to a Pew Research Center report, the divorce rate for people in the United States age 50 and older is now about double what it was in the 1990s. [...]

Many years ago I took courses at the Center for Creative Leadership, a world-renowned leadership-development firm. I worked for Dole at the time, and I guess they had high hopes for my changing the world, or at least improving my portion of the organization. One of the courses I took was called “Leading Creatively.” I [...]

I just received my fifth email this month on the same topic. In the email, my friend informed me he’s canceled his landline service and has chosen to use only his cellphone for voice communication because of the abundance of robocalls and scams he was receiving. Unfortunately, this will not solve his robocall problem. A [...]

I volunteered to work at the recent Thousand Oaks Chili Cook-Off for a friend who was going out of town and didn’t want to leave the Rotary Club that puts on the event short-handed. It was to be an all-day assignment, so I asked my husband if he’d like to join me. I have no [...]

If you live an hour or more away from a loved one who needs your care, you’re a long-distance caregiver.   Based upon the needs of the care receiver, as well as the skills, abilities and limitations of the caregiver, every long-distance caregiving experience is different. I’ve been a long-distance caregiver on two occasions, each [...]

I have a dear friend, Nancy, whose husband died unexpectedly several years ago. She was recounting the situation to me and how another friend of hers, a physician, wanted to give her some medication to calm her during the experience. Nancy’s response: “I have too much to do. I can’t be out of it.” We [...]

Aging is something we learn from family, our community and our culture. Sam, I’ll call him, is what can only be described as an 87-year-old curmudgeon. As a widower suffering from congestive heart failure, mostly homebound due to his fatigue and need for oxygen, he is bitter about his lot in life. Sam’s son and [...]

My husband is a finance guy, a CPA with a master’s in taxation. He is, by all accounts, a meticulous, detail-oriented individual. It’s nice to have one of those in a family. At least one of us should be reading the dishwasher manual when it malfunctions, checking a contract’s fine print before signing and making [...]