Elderly
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THUMBS UP!!!
When I first started driving, Granny cautioned me NOT to pick up hitchhikers. “You just never know,” she warned. I disobeyed her, but only once. That day, I was feeling pretty independent behind the wheel of my stick-shift, Chevy Nova, clunker when I saw a guy with his thumb out on the highway. No dummy… Read more
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YOU JUST NEVER KNOW
Bob and Joe are about as unlikely a pair as a cowboy boot and a Ked’s sneaker. Yet every morning they hold court at the local Starbucks. As customers dash in and out, there is a continual stream of “Mornin’ Bob.” “Hey there, Joe.” “How you guys this mornin?” Each recognition makes Bob puff his… Read more
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HERE’S TO THE ‘OLD’ NEW YEAR
New Year’s Eve finds me sitting alone in an old house dress with rolled up socks and the dog curled at my left hip. As I reflect on the ‘old’ year passing in my final blog for 2011, firecrackers pop in the distance. My teenagers are off with friends and my husband is long in… Read more
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IT TAKES A LOT OF NERVE
It takes a lot of nerve to steal from someone but it takes even more to give what you’ve stolen back. Both scenarios occurred to an 83 year-old friend of mine yesterday. She arrived at the pool as she has, “for the last 40 years,” with her purse stuffed inside of her gym bag. She… Read more
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CARRY ON
She looks absolutely pitiful; a shadow of the fluffy pup who only yesterday sprung up to her window seat to watch the cars go by. The vet sent Skylar home today after double knee surgery. A stiff, plastic Edwardian collar keeps her from licking the long, red-stitched wounds open. Her tail no longer arches up… Read more
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TIME CHANGES EVERYTHING
Everywhere you go nowadays you see ‘kids’ taking care of their elderly parents. That wasn’t the case when I wrote, “Kissing Tomatoes,” 10 years ago. At the time, publishers said, “Love the writing but no one will buy it. Who cares about Alzheimer’s?” Well, time changes everything. Just today, the woman in front of me… Read more
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in
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ONE IN TEN
How dare TIME magazine announce: “Alzheimer’s: At last, some progress against the most stubborn disease.” Imagine my disappointment to read merely the same old stuff: It’s hereditary. No drug cures it. Some have side effects worse than the disease itself. We still spend 5 billion a year on cancer research and only 500 million a… Read more
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ALZHEIMER’S? HMMM. . .
Picture this: me backstroking in the middle of my half mile swim. Have the lane all to myself and starting to pick up speed, which at my age is relative. Thinking how I can’t wait until it’s over. Then. . .smash. Suddenly, I collide with my friend, Forest, who in his Alzheimer’s state of bliss… Read more
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A STITCH IN TIME!!
Well, it’s been a whole week since 2011 lurched into view. The gym is already less crowded. For the record, I cannot ever remember making a New Year’s Resolution. As a kid I must have watched too many grownups make—and not keep–them. I have always tried to make daily ones; the kind that I could… Read more
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SINGIN’ SWINGIN’ SENIOR
What a thrill I had at the supermarket this morning!! As I was coming through the checkout line with a single bottle of CHEER, the cutest little teenage checker gave me a huge smile and said, “Are you a singer?” “Why, yes, I am,” I said, perfectly delighted that she may have recognized me. “Okay,… Read more
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AGEFULLY AGING 