The Lessons of Demographics

As I walk along Banbury Road to City Centre in Oxford, I pass the Oxford Institute of Population Ageing (yes, that’s the way they spell it) which, I thought, might have some interesting research and across-the-pond insights to share. After all, I have noticed in North Oxford a signif...
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CURRENT | 3 Views | 0 Comments

What if I were 80?

Reporter Janice Turner, 40, turned herself into a modern day crone to answer the question “What if I were 80?” But when she wrote about it in The Times of London this weekend, she didn’t have an answer, really (except that upon receipt of a photo of his wife radically age...
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AGING PARENTS | 19 Views | 0 Comments

Away From Home

Just a few ruminations on home. I left mine this week to join my husband, The Retired One, who moved to the U.K. for a year of post-graduate academic study at Oxford. (See “Breakfast for Dinner”). Actually, we’re both just visiting; the three terms here -- oh so quaintly ...
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RETIREMENT | 205 Views | 0 Comments

Debit Card Debacle

In case you haven’t noticed, the banking industry is under attack. I’m not surprised. I’m just wondering what took the rest of the country so long to get pissed. I’ve had issues with banks’ disregard for customer service -- without even going to th...
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FINANCES | 142 Views | 1 Comments

Breakfast for Dinner

The Retired One has moved to England to study for a year. That is, as he informs me, “to read theology.” At Oxford. Because it’s something he has always wanted to do. File this under “Be careful what you ask for.” You see, I actually as...
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RETIREMENT | 127 Views | 0 Comments

Living to 100 and Beyond

Like a bike rack outside an elementary school, the hallway outside the dining room of Caruth Haven Court, where my father now lives, is a jumble of age-appropriate mobility: walkers,wheelchairs and motorized scooters parked akimbo. When I first encountered this scene,I felt a kind of...
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HEALTH | 202 Views | 0 Comments

A Successful Vacation?

What’s a vacation for? Depends when you take it. And I don’t mean June, July, or August. It depends when, as in what year, or how old you are, or what you need at any given time or stage of life. This year’s summer vacation, for example, ha...
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RETIREMENT | 145 Views | 0 Comments

My Mind's Miasma

This is a confession. The thoughts run constantly, as if a rocky stream of consciousness were absolutely normal 24 hours a day. Sleep provides respite, and perhaps, I hope, a re-booting of the brain, but I’m not sure, because sleep must be induced by nocturnal habi...
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HEALTH | 327 Views | 0 Comments

My sister is a widow

My brother-in-law died last month, at age 69. He spent 10 days on life support. His kidneys failed, and his liver. And then life support was removed. My younger sister is a widow. I can write the words. I can say them. Occasionally they spill out of me when so...
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RELATIONSHIPS | 611 Views | 0 Comments

Come whine with me!

There is one huge whine emitting from us, ladies, and instead of grating on my nerves, as most whining does, it comforts me. It tells me I am not alone in my dismay, nor in my disgust, that on any given day or week or month some part of my post-60 body is giving out or causing ...
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HEALTH | 230 Views | 0 Comments

A Thank You Note to my Doctors -- AND to Blue Cross Blue Shield

I sent the following notes of thanks to two physicians who treated me last week, and to Blue Cross Blue Shield for their services. All parties probably receive more complaints than praise, so I trust my appreciation will be welcome. Feeling compelled to write these letters and callin...
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HEALTH | 655 Views | 1 Comments

The Good News (?) of Palm Sunday

It was Palm Sunday. Time for the Good News: The Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ According to Matthew 27: 1-54 was read by parishioners standing in the chancel, speaking the various parts. The congregation played the crowd as directed, shouting “Barabbas!” &ld...
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CURRENT | 226 Views | 0 Comments

Boomer Regrets

My dad turned to me a few months ago, after particularly discouraging visits to heart and lung doctors, and said with considerable regret, “I really should have quit smoking when I tried to at 35.” The doctors had confirmed what we all knew, that Dad was in late stage heart fail...
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HEALTH | 335 Views | 0 Comments

Young Voices

This site was developed to give voice to my generation, to question aging perceptions of aging, and to help each other find meaningful ways -- possibly transformative ways -- to use our energy, good health, skills, resources, and strength (in numbers) at this particular time in our ...
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CURRENT | 176 Views | 0 Comments

The doctor can see you . . .

A recent copy of the “Dallas Seniors’ Guide,” more a Yellow Pages for Geezers in Big D, contains, among its many, many ads for “carefree living,” a Medical Diary and, next to it, a calendar. How fitting, as everything about this booklet suggests the elde...
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HEALTH | 214 Views | 0 Comments

How Vulnerable are Women -- and their Rights -- Today?

I was surprised to read recently that women’s shelters are being threatened in Afghanistan -- surprised because, in my ignorance, I had not imagined there would be women’s shelters there. It was with a sense of wonder that I considered them, then: a safe place for women in the...
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CURRENT | 274 Views | 2 Comments

A terrorist cell in my DNA

Could it be, really, that I have reached a new stage in life, one which is defined and organized by doctors’ appointments, with the occasional physical therapy session thrown in for good measure? Or is this -- please, God -- just a temporary phase, a pit stop on the way to renewed well-be...
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HEALTH | 249 Views | 0 Comments

Pulling Grandma's Plug? Or Pushing her Button?

Who would pull the plug on Grandma? Let’s get to the heart of the matter right away: No one will pull the plug on Grandma unless she has left explicit instructions to do so under a particular set of circumstances; or unless the person she invested with her medical power of attorney ...
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HEALTH | 236 Views | 0 Comments

A New Wrinkle

Until four days ago, I was sure I was an exception. Acting on trusted medical counsel, I was confident I could, with my genes and a bit of luck, escape the highly -- and routinely -- publicized risks of hormone replacement therapy. I could stave off post-menopausal hot flashes, wrinkles, vagin...
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HEALTH | 280 Views | 0 Comments

The 2010 Christmas Letter

For the most part, the tone of the Christmas letters we now receive has changed. All braggadocio is gone. Tender words expressing a grandparent’s state of “ga-ga” over grandchildren share space with ruminations about retirement. Some, of course, send an extensive ...
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