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Siri: The Antidote to Memory Loss
“Could you stop singing, mom?” my kids would whine years ago as I carpooled them to their activities. “You’re ruining the song for me.” I reminded them that they never once lodged a complaint when I...
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Letter To My 3 Sons
As I was checking out at the grocery store today, I saw items going into my grocery bags that weren’t mine. I hadn’t put mushrooms and strawberries and ricotta cheese into my cart. I soon realized...
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If Your Child is Bipolar
All adolescents “try on mental illness.” This is why all diagnoses are provisional in adolescence. In other words all adolescents have their crazy behavior, language and thinking process. Think back...
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Tweeting Lessons For Boomers
Trying to keep young and hip? It’s always harder than you think. Did you spill a little stardust from the bottle of meteorite cream? Miss the free shipping offer on the Garcinia Cambogia Extract?...
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Exhausted? Take A Do Nothing Day
The house is quiet. I am here all alone, everyone having cleared out so that I can recuperate from yesterday’s tooth extraction. I feel well, but did notice that lifting a bag of garbage out of the...
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Are Directions Only For Old People?
“Seriously, Mom? What is wrong with people over 50?” my son asked me the other day. “Everyone over 50 feels the need to explain how to get somewhere. It’s annoying.” What is wrong with us? Why do we...
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Losing My Mother To Alzheimer’s
My heart hurts—I just got off the phone with my sweet, darling mom. I have the same experience every week—I call her because I want to hear her voice, and though her voice starts out strong, by the...
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Farewell Letter to My Dad
As I write, my dad breathes steadily. He sleeps endlessly, about 22 hours each day. I sit by his side and tell him I love him and massage lotion into his hands because I can’t think of what else to...
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My Father’s Last Gift
In the last months before my father died from complications of Parkinson’s Syndrome, he was out of it much of the time. When I would visit him at the nursing home, he would give me a smile of...
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18 Perks of Being a BA50
We have no idea who wrote this, but it was going around the internet and we love some great humor! Here are 18 reasons it is great to be a BA50- enjoy! 1. Kidnappers are not very interested in...
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Nursing Home PTSD
I have a wonderful friend who’s been like a mother to me. She calls me her “other” daughter, and my kids think of her as a bonus grandmother. Her name is Ruth. Ruth celebrated her 100th birthday in...
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Who’s Paying When You Can’t Live Home Anymore?
Thanks to improved public sanitation, medical advances and smart lifestyle choices, people are living longer. The US Census reports that the fastest growing demographic is people 90 plus. They used...
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Am I Losing It?
My doctor will be interested in this story about the borrowed book–the book I do not remember returning. Doctors are starting to pay more attention to people’s own sense about whether they are losing...
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Dear God, Please Help My Mother Die
I am not a religious person. I’m not even sure I believe in a higher power, let alone one true God. Even so, for the past several years I often find myself praying. When I do pray, it is always...
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Exercise – It’s Not About Vanity
I don’t consider myself retired, but my work as a writer allows me to take advantage of “retiree hours.” That means that I no longer have to go to the gym at the crack of dawn on my way to work. Now...
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5 Life Lessons From Wise Women
New York Times columnist, David Brooks, asked persons over the age of 70 to send him a brief report “…on your life so far, an evaluation of what you did well, of what you did not do so well and what...
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Do You Want To Know If You Have The Alzheimer’s Gene?: Part 2
This piece is the second in a series. To read the first, click here. The last in the series will be published on Wednesday, Sept. 4. This piece was originally published in The Davis Enterprise....
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Doorway To The Divine
A few years ago, my husband and I prepared to meet other family members and friends at the Pacific Bay Resort, a vacation retreat located in northwest Panama. Since then, we have been yearly visitors,...
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I’m Not A Bitch, I’ve Got Prosopagnosia
The other day I was checking out at the hair salon next to a woman with beautiful gray hair. “I recognize you,” she said, giving me a warm, generous smile. I smiled back—it was one of those awkward...
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Finding Myself At Sea
I had the good fortune to spend the past week on a boat in the Caribbean. The opportunity arose a few weeks prior when a conversation about holiday plans yielded the inevitable “alternate years”...
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