Caregiving
-
Put it on an iPod and Plug in!
Noted neurologist, Oliver Sacks, once said that, “Music evokes emotion, and emotion can bring with it memory… it brings back the feeling of life when nothing else can.” Recently, opera singer turned neuroscientist, Linda Maguire, researched using music for those with failing cognition. “Musical aptitude and music appreciation are two of the last remaining abilities… Read more
-
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
-
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
—
by
in
-
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
-
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
-
OLD FOLKS & ARTICHOKES
“When Granny first taught me how to eat an artichoke, I was perturbed that I had to go through all those layers of armor just to get to that mushroom cap of a heart. Frankly, at 13, i thought the best part was the butter dipping.” Read more
-
ALZHEIMER’S & THE GIFT OF FORGETTING
“Only ONCE did Granny say to me during her Alzheimer’s years, “I think I am losing my memory.” It was towards the end, in the middle of that period when she was wearing a diaper and I was re-instructing her on how to use a spoon. She didn’t even know my name and my first… Read more
-
SIX YEAR-OLD SHARES SECRET OF LIFE
“I was raised by a grandmother who believed you should put your heart in the moment. She never looked back or too far forward and it drove me crazy……….. Read more
-
KISSING YOUR TOMATOES!
“When I think about it, though, it really is the ‘little things’ in life that often make the deepest impressions on us. For the last few years, when my husband gets up before I do, he makes me a cup of coffee and leaves it on the counter. Even though he has done this at… Read more
-
CATS MAY HAVE NINE LIVES—WE DON’T
“My mother got that dementia thing,” he told me. “Put her in a home and that was that. Don’t know what all the fuss is about. You can put ’em anywhere. Doesn’t matter. They don’t know where they are anyway.” Read more
AGEFULLY AGING 