What do you do when your parents are too stubborn to help themselves? When I moved from Ohio to Mexico a few years ago, my family was doing well. My brother and sister had busy careers and my son was in college. My parents were relatively healthy and able to…

Who can we trust to take care of us? — Let’s face it — getting older is stressful. We don’t know how long we will be healthy and able to care for ourselves. We may or may not have reliable family members to take care of us when the time comes. It’s a scary thought for those of us who…

Do you find them convenient or annoying? — Grocery shopping trips between 1964 and 2000 For most of my life grocery shopping was a pleasant experience. When I was first married, I walked to our nearest market with my own little wheeled cart. I’d look at the ad, make my list, grab my cart, and walk the three blocks to Market Basket in West Los…

I don’t want my heirs to have to deal with this question — I’m currently sorting through a lot of possessions passed down from family members who lived before us. Many are photos of people I’ve never met whose names I don’t even know. Some are in elaborate frames. What do I do with them? We think the lead photo could be my…

An open response to Sherry McGuinn — Sherry, this morning as I was preparing to face the world I lay in bed, opened up Medium and saw your story: Age is the Bane of my Existence Perhaps you’ll relate to my lack of embracementmedium.com I could not help but respond. You said: “I’m reaching out to see who feels as I do and how you cope with such ruminations.” Here’s my answer. …

What your middle-aged self never expected — What’s the first thing you visualize when you contemplate getting old? Is it physical signs of aging? Wrinkles, saggy skin, gray hair, and maybe even losing an inch of height? As you can see above, all that happened to me. …

So far it’s a real pain, but these self-care measures help — An ounce of prevention, as they say, is better than a pound of cure I probably could have prevented my fall last weekend. I’ll spare you the details of how this room got so cluttered, but part of it had to do with my husband’s broken neck earlier this year, which also could have been prevented. …

A non-focused life with too many interests may later trap you when you get too old to declutter — Your clutter can harm you My mother-in-law Paula was a widow in her eighties who lived alone. She was mostly bedridden and had confined herself to a small cluttered bedroom. There was barely room to walk around her bed. …

The story of a marriage that survived despite the odds against it — We beat the odds The odds are against a couple celebrating their Golden Wedding Anniversary. Almost every day we hear of a marriage that didn’t last more than a few years or that sputtered out in midlife. Some marriages don’t last until the weddings that began them are paid for. According to Business Insider…

Can the temporal become eternal? — The abandoned house in wine country I first saw this house as I drove past it on Highway 46 West in Templeton. It was just west of Castoro Winery and I wondered if there was a story behind it. …

This was written during the time I was caring for my mom and spending a lot of time sitting in the hospital by her bedside so that she could retain a bit of her dignity. Mom’s ailment was horrible back pain, for which she was heavily drugged. It remained undiagnosed…