Mature Life Features

. . . just returned from a trip to China.

I asked him what is was like

when he was over there.

He said he couldn’t complain.

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You Folks at Verena

can learn how to make in-home medical appointments

at 2 p.m. tomorrow (Thursday) 2nd floor theater.

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Not All Seniors are Senile

Our current day culture still emphasizes the glamor of youth while blowing the dust off of people considered old who function at a level somewhere between a chimpanzee in diapers and a toddler with a hearing deficiency.

This myth of diminished capacity is being eroded somewhat by the more than 70 million baby boomers moving into the aged cohort. But there’s still a great need for communication between the young and old. In underlining the seriousness of the situation, David Solie draws on the German proverb:

“Fear makes the wolf bigger than he is.”

“Bodies don’t work as well when we age, so it seems reasonable to assume that brains don’t work

as well, either,” he writes in his book, “How to Say it to Seniors.” While the book was put together as a tool for consultants working with seniors, his insights also have applications for family and friends. Examples of successful seniors he cites include Verdi’s “Otello,” the founding of the Christian Science Monitor by Mary Baker Eddy, and the design and construction of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Guggenheim Museum in New York City. These achievements were attained when those individuals were aged 70 and 71.

“Our love of the biological model of aging has duped us into believing that ‘slowing down’ is synonymous with diminished capacity,” he states about the segment of population “that Tom Brokaw writes about in ‘The Greatest Generation.'” So there is no excuse for the communication gap separating children, parents, and grandparents, especially when it comes to money matters.

You should know, for example, if your parents have enough money to live on in their retirement. If they have never discussed it with you, then you can use a variety of tactics to broach the topic.

For starters, vital for everybody is the need to maintain control over their lives. So if your parents are already retired, Solie suggests you ask them for some help by explaining how they came up with their retirement plan. This can lead to exploration of both your financial situations – yours and theirs. The discussion, once opened, can expand to medical and health coverage, estate planning, and wills.

Parents can use the same strategy by asking their children for some book-keeping help to refine their retirement financial plans. Then they can both work on a program. Look over all insurance policies, tax returns, pension statements, property deeds and mortgage documents, loan papers, bank and credit-card statements, and any other pieces of the paper trail that led them to their present position.

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