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Staying in Touch after the Holidays are Over
We all try to include our older relatives during the holiday festivities, but once the holidays are over do we try to stay in touch? After Christmas and New Year’s are done and gone, older people can be left starving for company. The weather is usually bad, making getting out harder for older folks. The […]
Aging in Place Versus Life Care Community: How to Compare the Costs
Louise has lived in her Florida home with her husband for the past 10 years. A daughter who has her own health problems lives nearby and a son lives a state away. Though he visits often, for practical purposes Louise has to manage day-to-day problems on her own. She called me because she wanted to […]
Fun in a Chair!
When I started being in charge of activities for a memory unit, I also inherited the leadership of exercise class. We had about twenty residents and most of them had limited mobility, so chair exercises were almost all any of them could do. Needless to say, most of them were reluctant to even try exercising […]
Santas for Seniors Spread Much Needed Holiday Cheer
The holidays are for family and friends, but it’s also the season of giving. During this time, though, many of the elderly within our communities are left without friends and family to lean on, or gifts to unwrap. To combat this and spread holiday cheer, organizations and grassroots efforts are popping up around the country […]
The Games of Our Youth
Updated February 2026 Long ago, but not so far away, there were no televisions, no computers and no cell phones. What did people do in their spare time? Well, a lot of them played games — face-to-face, up close and personal — no electronics needed. I learned to play twiddle winks, marbles, pick-up sticks and […]
Seniors Discovering—and Rediscovering—Marijuana
Joy Crowley took her first puff of marijuana last year, sometime after she turned 79. While recovering from hip replacement surgery a few years ago, she had a serious adverse reaction to the medications prescribed for pain, as well as many over-the-counter medications “all the way down to Aleve.” She now suffers from arthritis throughout […]
Caring for Orphaned Kittens Gives Seniors with Dementia Purpose
A wonderful match has been made between kittens and a community of elderly people in an Arizona senior living center. Rebecca Hamilton, the health service director at Catalina Springs in Arizona, is also a committed foster parent to animals in her community. Her love for the volunteer job got her thinking — why not pair […]
Grannies and Granddads of Another Kind
Updated February 2026 Perhaps you’re like me and always had an adopted grandparent living in your neighborhood. With all my grandparents two thousand miles away, I was lonely for older folks as a child. Fortunately for me, there were always a few around who took the time to talk to me and listen to me […]
Can People With “Diminished Capacity” Make Legal Documents?
More seniors are taking care of business by making legal documents specifying that their money, property and medical care be managed and distributed as they direct. But as their numbers have swelled, so have the challenges by outsiders — usually family members spoiling for a fight — that they lacked the mental capacity required for […]
The Blue Christmas and Holiday Grief
