seniors

 (Photo Reuters) The lover is a monotheist who knows that other people worship different gods but cannot himself imagine that there could be other gods. -Theodor Reik, Of Love and Lust, 1957 When I was working as a nurse’s aide during my under-graduate days in a nursing home we had a resident with a girlfriend who made conjugal visits. We all were aware of the scheduled times and pulled the curtain on his semi-private room during these encounters. Even his roommate “Sam” whose stroke left him in a wheelchair with

  Then it don't matter. I'll be all around in the dark - I'll be everywhere. Wherever you can look - wherever there's a fight, so hungry people can eat, I'll be there. Wherever there's a cop beatin' up a guy, I'll be there. I'll be in the way guys yell when they're mad. I'll be in the way kids laugh when they're hungry and they know supper's ready, and when the people are eatin' the stuff they raise and livin' in the houses they build - I'll be there, too. --Tom Joad Character in The

  To a father growing old nothing is dearer than a daughter. -Euripides I recently posted a “best-of” (retread) blog titled: The Meaning of Things to make a point that meaningful objects from home lose meaning in institutions like nursing homes. When bloggers share ideas/concepts/stories on the net, we can only hope—like sending children off to school, they will do good in the world or have some positive influence. This post evoked a response I will always remember—and made my point more eloquently and personally than any of my efforts may have engendered.

  The really frightening thing about middle age is that you know you'll grow out of it! — Doris Day  A tweet from Kohler got me thinking: What do you think of Barbie's new eco-friendly dream home from Mattel and;@AIANational http://huff.to/obGmER? We love the low-flow toilet!  Seems Barbie is trending green after years of Pink convertibles and end-less wardrobes; not exactly a sustainability lifestyle (making up for past sins?). The joint effort is a synergy of The AIA and Mattel, who have teamed up for the design competition in honor of

    I often hear people say that a person suffering from Alzheimer's is not the person they knew. I wonder to myself - Who are they then? --Bob DeMarco   The Present-absence and the long-good-bye of Alzheimer’s disease is heart-breaking. I sat with my once brilliant friend, Frances Gabe, holding her hand and longing for the excursions into the deep end of ideas that we once shared. But that is in the past; to quote Chuck Heston quoting Shakespeare in his statement, they bade farewell