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What It Is Like For Dad To Be Gone

Dad went into the rest home yesterday. He has dementia (apparently of the lewy body variety) and has been deteriorating for years. For the last two years, he could not be left alone and needed...

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The Week Before Dad Left

Dad went into the memory unit at Christian Rest Home a week ago. A week before that, it didn’t seem that admission was imminent. However, that previous Wednesday, my mom said for the first time, “I...

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Albert Schweitzer on Maturity

I recently ran across a quote about ‘maturity’ attributed to Albert Schweitzer. As he neared age 70, he reportedly wrote: “The meaning of maturity which we should develop in ourselves is that we should...

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Alzheimer’s Misconceptions

Alzheimer’s Disease is the most common form of dementia, responsible for an estimated 60-80% of cases. The range in estimated cases has to do with the difficulty of diagnosis; Alzheimer’s can only be...

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“Can You Spare Me a Dime?” Getting Ready For the Journey.

My mom and I were my dad’s primary caregivers as dementia gradually chewed at his mind. I helped them in their home for almost two years, until, at last, my mother made the difficult decision to have...

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The Holy Fool

I recently read Harold Fickett’s 1983 novel The Holy Fool. Haven’t heard of it? Neither had I. It addresses some interesting issues concerning midlife, though, and that captured my interest. Fickett...

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More on Schweitzer and Maturity

I wrote earlier about a comment Albert Schweitzer made about maturity. In looking for the source of that quote, I ran across something else he had said about the topic. The first quote I had found came...

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Generativity at the Movies

I recently posted a reflection on “Chef,” Jon Favreau’s movie about an eminent chef whose career runs aground on the shoals of excess caution, then is re-floated thanks to a cross-country jaunt on a...

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Roger Ebert, “Life Itself,” and Change

I recently saw Life Itself, the documentary about Chicago Sun-Times film critic Roger Ebert’s life. The most remarkable thing about this film wasn’t any of Ebert’s achievements but his willingness to...

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Mom On Her Own

When my dad went into a nursing home on June 4, it was the first time that he and my mom lived apart in their 68 years of marriage. Mom was exhausted from caring for him. I expected she would regain...

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A Middle-Aged Suicide

Andrew Solomon wrote recently about Robin Williams’ suicide. He mused about the unique features of this particular death: “In public appearances, he never showed the callous narcissism of many actors;...

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The Two Phases of Retirement

Work and leisure patterns late in life are changing. The ideal of taking full retirement in order to live a life of leisure is giving way to phenomena such as partial retirement, active retirement, or,...

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James A. Ritzema, RIP

You’re never ready. My dad had heart surgery 25 years ago, carotid artery surgery 13 years ago, and memory problems for about 10 years that eventually cascaded into severe dementia. Three months ago,...

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Not Ready To Be Old

I recently encountered a  new blog in which the writer intends to explore the “third act” of life, i.e. the time past age 55. She begins by telling that her grandmother at age 65 wondered how she had...

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If We All Live To 100

The cover story for the October issue of the Atlantic is titled “What Happens When We All Live to 100?” The author, Gregg Easterbrook, notes that the “life expectancy escalator”—the increase in life...

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Do We Become More Virtuous As We Age?

Do we become more virtuous as we age? Certainly there are saints among us who display more of the fruit of the Spirit with every passing year. Then there is someone like Fred Phelps, founder of...

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Hoping to Die at 75?

The October, 2014 Atlantic considers the prospect of average lifespans reaching 100—I wrote about that possibility here. In the same issue there is an article by Ezekiel Emmanuel titled “Why I Hope to...

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Are Elderly Parents an Emotional Weight for Their Children?

Ezekiel Emanuel. Image from upenn.edu I recently wrote about medical ethicist Ezekiel Emanuel’s Atlantic article explaining why he doesn’t want to live past age 75. I left off without having discussed...

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Healthy Aging

George Vaillant Some time ago I wrote a post about George Vaillant and the Harvard Study of Adult Development. I’ve since read Aging Well, Vaillant’s 2002 book in which he drew conclusions from the...

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Olderhood.com

I recently became a contributing writer for olderhood.com. I’ve been following their blog for some time, and have found that their contributors offer interesting perspectives on aging and retirement....

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