By Lois Requist The World Health Organization has a vision which is to “facilitate the inclusion of older persons to make our world more age-friendly.” The organization believes “An age-friendly world enables people of all ages to actively participate in community activities and treats everyone with respect, regardless of their age.” So what does […]
Voice of the Village: A local heroine
By Judie Donaldson I recall a number of years ago when my friend Karen called to request a favor. Her father had died that morning, and she called to ask me to pass along a message to our friends. The message? She requested that we each honor her father’s life by living life––by doing something […]
Voice of the Village: What is the best time of life?
By Lois Requist When I was a kid, older people often told me that I was experiencing the best time of my life, so I should enjoy it. Even then, some part of me wanted to respond, “Really? This is as good as it gets?” What was my life then? We were poor, and unlike […]
Voice of the Village: What’s up, doc?
By Judie Donaldson Do you ever have the feeling that you’d just like to go back to the good old days? You know, when life was simpler. I’m feeling this way today because I have an appointment with my doctor next week. When I was little, I thought that when you had a physical problem, […]
Voice of the Village: The Six Percent Solution
By Diana Choquette Keeping our brains healthy as we age is a common concern these days. We are exhorted to eat certain foods, take various supplements, solve puzzles, get our exercise, learn new things, etc. Just as I was about to start writing this article, I read of a new study indicating our little gray […]
Voice of the Village; Technology: It’s going to change how we age
By Judie Donaldson I just returned from a vacation with my family at Lake Tahoe, which is about as beautiful and serene a setting as I have known. But, while I was there, I noticed something curious. I observed that my two daughters and two sons-in-law––all of whom are professionals with demanding jobs––were completely free […]
Voice of the Village: How’s your relationship with your grandchildren?
By Lois Requist I’ve always gotten a kick out of Judith Martin, who writes the Miss Manners column in many newspapers. I like her common sense. Recently, a mother wrote to Miss Manners, saying that her parents had moved across the country to be near their daughter and her family. The mother said she had […]
Voice of the Village: A day that changed my life
By Judie Donaldson I was deeply touched by Lois’s last column about losing a friend to Alzheimer’s disease. She shared her experiences and feelings with such tenderness. As I read, my eyes darted from one sentence to the next as I projected how I would feel if I had a similar experience with a good […]
Voice of the Village: My friend has Alzheimer’s
By Lois Requist People sometimes say things like, “Growing old isn’t for sissies,” or “It’s all downhill from here,” or some other such remarks, none of which I agree with, but, as we’ve talked about here before, our culture tends to glorify the young, the perfect, while not speaking highly of its elders. People say […]
Voice of the Village: Ballroom dancing, anyone?
By Judie Donaldson I must admit that it’s sometimes hard for me to believe what I read, particularly when something seems so implausible or just doesn’t fit into any corner of my brain. This occurred to me this morning when I read something about ballroom dancing. Bear with me. I’ll explain what stymied me in […]