Mental Health

How to Find Variety in Community For Your Elder

“No.” All her life, Maggie had been in the middle of everything. A little raucous and “off the wall,” irreverent and fun, full of life. But life had almost drained from her, and as a widow, blind and in a wheelchair, she didn’t bubble as she used to. She barely simmered most days.  So when […]

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How Loneliness and Isolation Are Toxic for Elders

We sat on our swing on the deck. At mid-afternoon it looked like dusk. Our solar lights sprung to life and an eerie stillness descended. We wore our special glasses and watched with awe as the eclipse of 2024 slipped across the sky.  As awed as I was by the whole event, something else struck

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Finding Creativity for Your Elder in Unexpected Places

“What happens in knitting group stays in knitting group.” Seriously? What crimes could possibly be committed in knitting group? Perhaps not crimes, but lots of interesting stories and long held secrets emerged while needles clacked. What? I can’t tell, because, what happens in knitting group… Last week we looked at the benefits of creativity for

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How Creativity Opens New Worlds for Elders with Dementia

Barbara had a bad attitude her entire life, and it didn’t improve when she struggled with dementia. Snarky, sometimes mean, but also needy and wanting all the attention all the time, she’d always looked after herself. Now she couldn’t, and she wasn’t gracious about it. Even her dementia didn’t stop her from making snide remarks

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Can Exercise Be Fun? Here Are Some Tricks and Tips

“Exercise and fun shouldn’t be used in the same sentence.” I said and believed that for years, and I sometimes feel skeptical even yet, but I’ve found ways to make even the most boring leg lifts more fun. (Okay, somewhat, a little fun. Endurable.) What is exercise? This feels like a “stating the obvious” question,

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One Key to Success With Exercise and My Secret Inspiration

Back in our “poverty days,” which seemed to last for years, we had no dental insurance for a period of time while my husband changed jobs. As soon as we had coverage again, I got the kids to the dentist, but didn’t go myself. My internal dialogue ran like this: “I’ve gone this long without

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How to Have Difficult Conversations With Your Elder

Everyone in the family knew that Grandpa couldn’t hear well. The television roared when he listened to it, and the radio sounded at levels that rivalled his teenage grandchildren. In conversation, he growled about family members “muttering.” Why couldn’t anyone speak up these days? Conversations addressing the problem never went well. Grandpa would go off

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If Dementia Had a Park, What Would it Look Like?

We turned a corner and giant metal flowers caught my eye. I also spied statues of people, but we were caught in the flow of traffic, and although I craned my neck, I saw only enough to know I wanted to return. We did, that night, and I experienced a piece of Ottawa which touched

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How do I navigate the struggle to find good care?

My dad asked me to take mom shopping. They planned a road trip out west to visit my sister and family, and mom needed new camisoles. He’d become a reluctant caregiver when she developed Alzheimer’s, but that kind of shopping  gave him chills. I looked forward to a fun time with mom, who loved to

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