“Oh, I really used to love to shop,” says Marnie Stuart. “I’d get all dressed up in the morning and head out, and stay at it all day long. Sometimes, I’d come home and then regret not getting some item or another — and I’d go right back that afternoon and get it.” But Stuart, […]

“I flew solo,” says Jane Barton, recalling that “by nature, nurture, and necessity” she became the primary caregiver for her mother who suffered a long and debilitating illness. Barton was only 15 years old when that solo flight began. Decades later, she says the biggest lesson she learned from the experience is still indelibly etched […]

To mangle a Twainism: The reports of Social Security’s demise are greatly exaggerated. Social Security benefits, which provide critical income for nearly 63 million retired or disabled workers, along with their dependents and survivors, will continue to be paid for the foreseeable future. But to mangle someone else’s words — possibly Kool & the Gang — […]

About 71.6 million people received benefits from programs administered by the Social Security Administration in 2023, including income for former workers, their dependents, and many disabled people. More than 50 million beneficiaries are older adults who receive monthly Social Security retirement benefits. As many have complained, the rules for how and when to claim benefits […]

Seniors, too often the targets of cyber-savvy or fast-talking scammers, are again being singled out — this time by admittedly ingenious “spoofers” masquerading as representatives of the Social Security Administration (SSA). Typically, the newest spoofing scam works like this: Aware that most people now screen their phone calls by checking the caller’s number before they pick […]

Updated April 2025 While lamenting the losses, limitations, and inevitable aches and pains that come with aging, many people are also quick to put a half-positive spin on it. “Well, it beats the alternative,” they’ll say. Or as nicely-aging actor George Clooney recently said, more forthrightly: “I’m kind of comfortable with getting older because it’s […]

At a time when various movements have been reenergized to take new aims against sexual abuse, workplace inequality, and political threats to women’s rights, another common cause has surfaced: Alzheimer’s disease. A statistic commonly bantered about is that in the United States, every 65 seconds a new brain develops Alzheimer’s. Most people assume the prevalent, […]

Updated April 2025 A federal program that has made it possible for more than 88,000 seniors and people with disabilities to make the transition they craved — moving from nursing homes back into houses, apartments, and group homes in their communities — is now being threatened with budget cuts and possible extinction. The legislation was […]

With a few welcome exceptions, TV shows and films about aging most often feature dire and dour stereotypes of the later years of life. It can be downright depressing. But challenge yourself to keep a straight face while watching the iconic scene from the 1952 “I Love Lucy” episode in which Lucy and Ethel have first delicious, then […]

“Sick, Dying and Raped in America’s Nursing Homes” was the attention-grabbing headline on a CNN investigative report released in February of 2017. It shined light on the fact that more than 1,000 nursing homes had been cited for mishandling suspected cases of rape, sexual assault, and sexual abuse — along with the likelihood that tens of […]