BS: Who you calling elderly?

Subject: RE: BS: Who you calling elderly?
From: Donuel
Date: 31 May 21 - 06:18 PM

I remember less of my story and more that it was featured on an immortality research website. My memory always had word glitches in that my left brain doesn't remember what my right brain wrote.
Even memorizing scripts is the hardest task in my life.
I like writing stories and abstracts but the act of reading is too exhausting to enjoy. Weird huh.

Many dementia tests ask who is the President or involves spelling backwards or subtracting by seven from 100. I better start practicing now.

Many of you have heard of Ted Williams of the Red Sox. Today his head is still cryrogenicly frozen solid.

Subject: RE: BS: Who you calling elderly?
From: Helen
Date: 31 May 21 - 05:20 PM

Thanks Charmion. I knew it was a big-name sci-fi author.

In workplace health and safety information sessions we were always told to bend our knees and not bend from the waist otherwise it would put strain on the back. There are some garden kneeler aids around but that may not be useful for you.

Hubby & I avoid kneeling because it is so darn difficult to get up again these days. Dropping something and seeing it slide under a cabinet is an elderly person's nightmare IMO because of the ungainly manoeuvres involved in getting back up off the floor after retrieving the item,

Subject: RE: BS: Who you calling elderly?
From: Charmion
Date: 31 May 21 - 01:05 PM

Helen, the novel your memory is almost but not quite delivering is "I Will Fear No Evil" by Robert A. Heinlein.

Heinlein's obsession with extreme longevity made it a recurring theme of his oeuvre, fully expressed in his last mostly readable novel, "Time Enough For Love".

After yesterday's bout of gardening, followed by emergency removal of the parlour carpet (tomcat with possible urinary tract issue), my whole body is calling me elderly today, and it has me convinced.

I don't squat or kneel well, thanks to old injuries, so I weed in the bung-up-and-bilge-free position, bent from the waist. Consequently, I can still put my hands flat on the floor without bending my knees (much), but it's a bit hard on the hamstrings and lower back.

Subject: RE: BS: Who you calling elderly?
From: Helen
Date: 31 May 21 - 12:13 PM

Also Donuel, I had not heard of telomeres until a couple of weeks ago when I watched a TV show - I think it was the Australian show called Ask the Doctor (or maybe it was Dr Michael Mosley's Trust Me I'm a Doctor).

Very interesting.

Subject: RE: BS: Who you calling elderly?
From: WalkaboutsVerse
Date: 31 May 21 - 11:36 AM

I vaguely recall a documentary a few years ago about people paying to have their bodies kept in some kind of freezer in case future science may allow them to be brought back to life.

Subject: RE: BS: Who you calling elderly?
From: Helen
Date: 31 May 21 - 11:23 AM

Donuel, a long, long time ago I read a science fiction story possibly by Isaac Asimov, about a rich man who wanted to prolong his life and the procedure was something like transplanting his head onto someone else's body. Something like that. But I think it didn't work out as planned. I think the other person was a woman so then he had to deal with life in a whole different way and he wasn't a happy chappy. Well in fact, he wasn't a chappy any more.

I wish I could remember the title of the story and I probably have the details wrong.

Whenever I think of that story, I think that I would not want to live longer than my allotted time and it would definitely depend on the quality of my life and whether I still have all of my faculties.

Subject: RE: BS: Who you calling elderly?
From: Donuel
Date: 31 May 21 - 09:24 AM

I assume its the US but I am as curious as you.

10 years ago I wrote some fiction about telomere treatments that only Bill Gates, Musk and Bezos could afford and the consequences of doubling certain life spans. Politically it was like greed on steroids.

Subject: RE: BS: Who you calling elderly?
From: gnu
Date: 31 May 21 - 08:08 AM

Myself.

Subject: RE: BS: Who you calling elderly?
From: BobL
Date: 31 May 21 - 01:48 AM

half the kids born today will reach 101 or higher

Worldwide, or merely in certain countries? I presume that's also extrapolating from present trends, not taking into account the foreseeable consequences of war, pestilence, global warming etc.

Subject: RE: BS: Who you calling elderly?
From: Donuel
Date: 30 May 21 - 07:47 PM

60 minutes tonight is about people in their 90's and 100's
Several eye openers is ; that half the kids born today will reach 101 or higher. There is a resistance to dementia or Aspergers in some people that leaves them unaffaected. CPT43 is a dementia that affects only people in their 90's.

Subject: RE: BS: Who you calling elderly?
From: Helen
Date: 30 May 21 - 02:48 PM

That's beautiful, Jerry.

Subject: RE: BS: Who you calling elderly?
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 30 May 21 - 11:56 AM

Great story, Helen.

One about my mother.

My mother lived to 99. Her body was giving out, but her m,ind wsas still as clear as a bell. She'd lost her vision to the point where wh could no longer ead, but her dear friend Bess (who was in her her late 80's, would drop by every evening after visiting severak other friends of hers in the complex. Each night, Bess would read to her before Mom went to sleep. She often read a story from one of my books, which mom especially enjoyed. Mom's health was rapidly detgeriorated and she knew she didn't have long to live. Bess told mom that she wanted to be there when mom went home to glory, and mom promised she'd have someone call her if she knew she was near to passing.

When the time came and mom knew she was dying, she had the nurse call Bess so she could be there. When the nurse called, Bess didn't answer the phone. Mom was very upset and asked the nurse to find Bess. As it turned out, Bess was taking a shower. When they reached Bess, they told her mom wanted her to come immediately. Bess threw on some clothes and rushed to mom's room. Mom was holding on,keeping her promise to Bess. When mom saw Bess come in the room, she gave a weak smile and reached up one hand. When Bess took her hand and spoke to her, mom's hand slipped from Bess's and she went hoe to glory with a smile.

Mom was a woman of her word.

Subject: RE: BS: Who you calling elderly?
From: Helen
Date: 29 May 21 - 11:06 PM

Jerry, a few years after my maternal grandfather died, when my grandmother decided to move to a retirement village she lucked out completely in finding a really good place to live. She started out in a self contained unit and when her health deteriorated many years later she was moved into a higher level of care but still independent living and then later into the nursing home. I think she made some good friends there and the staff were very caring and supportive.

It was indicative of my Grandma that she suffered a heart attack while carrying a heavy sewing machine up a slope to do some sewing for another village resident. No slacking off for her. Some years later she had a stroke and she was gone soon after.

Subject: RE: BS: Who you calling elderly?
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 29 May 21 - 10:50 PM

One of the difficult things to do is imagine life in a nursing home when you're in your fifties, or even sixties. My father resisted going in to a retirement complex. When he reached the age where taking care of the yard and property (or even taking out the garbage) was difficult for him, he changed his mind. He loved the place they moved to because they started out with an apartment, and lived there until my father died. My mother stayed in the apartment for another three years, and then moved into assisted living in the same complex. If they'd stayed in our family home they would have lived a sad life. They couldn't drive; most of their freinds were dead or equally isolated. In the retirement complex they made many new friends and socially more than they had when they were living at home. If you try to imagine yourself living in a retirement complex or nursing home with your current health, of course it sounds like a sentence.

Subject: RE: BS: Who you calling elderly?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 29 May 21 - 10:48 PM

I hope the many lessons about how to reach out to your loved ones even during a pandemic have been learned by a lot of people. 100 years from now, when the 2020 pandemic is history and something to be studied, what will the conclusions be? Hopefully that we were resourceful in our methods of staying in touch with loved ones.

My daughter and I spent the last year having picnics in the parking garage at her workplace, where after a few months at home they determined that she could safely go in two days a week (alternating staff in work areas). So on a Tuesday or Thursday I would pickup takeout, would drive to her garage and park next to her car. We both took folding cloth chairs out of our vehicles (I now keep two of them in my SUV—I never did before, but I always will now—and we sat six feet apart to talk and eat. When we were vaccinated and could finally hug - I didn't think I could let go of her, it had been so long. I think the literature will be full of stories of family resourcefulness. And for our elders, those concerts from the parking lot or through glass, and conversations via phone or tablet, they helped. Good job, everyone.

Subject: RE: BS: Who you calling elderly?
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 29 May 21 - 08:14 PM

I know. The last year has been bloody tough. Just make sure that you get to those sing-songs when you can. It's really important to know what you've got before it's gone, I found....

Subject: RE: BS: Who you calling elderly?
From: punkfolkrocker
Date: 29 May 21 - 07:57 PM

My mum is now an unwilling resident in a dementia care home.
It is essential either my wife or I phone her at the same time every evening
It doesn't matter what rubbish we talk about as long as we end every call with mum laughing.

My mum is a retired care worker.
She worked many years in an old people's home.
She often complained to us about middle class families who dumped their parents in the home;
then rarely bothered getting back in touch until it was time for the will to be read..

We are a traditional old fashioned working class family.
Mum has no money, or property, or investments too leave us.
We phone her everyday simply because we love her.

I hope I get to see her soon while she still recognises the top of my head poking up out of full PPE...

Subject: RE: BS: Who you calling elderly?
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 29 May 21 - 06:20 PM

My mum was in a residential home close to us for two years until she died last October aged 91. It was hardly Buckingham Palace, but we were incredibly happy to have her in such a loving environment so close to us. Whilst the 03.48 PM post fairly accurately describes the kind of things happening there, the sort of activities, etc., it completely fails to capture the atmosphere that the wonderful efforts of the staff to entertain the residents achieved, and the sense of fun that they successfully engendered in those kinds of activities. Why, I wouldn't have missed those sing-songs with my mum for the world, and yes, we sang We'll Meet Again every time. Shop around for your residential home. There's a lot of love around.

Subject: RE: BS: Who you calling elderly?
From: WalkaboutsVerse
Date: 29 May 21 - 04:06 PM

As well as the "Quartet" movie, I'm sure I saw on the news a care home for ex-classical musicians here in England...so it's certainly possible, Helen...

Subject: RE: BS: Who you calling elderly?
From: Helen
Date: 29 May 21 - 03:48 PM

I started a thread in January 1999 (when I was in my mid '40's) based on a comment I had made in a different thread which was named "Old Folkers":

Old Folkies' Home/Retirement Village

"Subject: RE: Old Folkers From: Helen Date: 01-Jan-99 - 06:09 PM On another note: A few years ago I had an idea (but no resources to carry it out) about setting up an Old Folkies Home/Retirement Village. I think that my own personal nightmare of growing old is the possibility that I'll be trapped in a regular old folk's home with bingo players and carpet bowlers, being wheeled in to a concert of singers singing way off key, and playing out of tune fiddles, playing "We'll Meet Again" or something from the turn of this century (rather than Stairway to Heaven or a bit of Metallica?), and being patted on the head by a well-meaning young-un who says "you'll love this music, dear" and being left there, incapable of wheeling myself away from the aural torture. It's be far better to set up an Old Folkies Home where the residents would sit around having sessions and Mudcat-type chats and *we* would be the ones going to other old folks homes to provide the music. Like one long folk festival for the rest of your life. What do you reckon?"

---

Link fixed. ---mudelf

Subject: RE: BS: Who you calling elderly?
From: WalkaboutsVerse
Date: 29 May 21 - 03:19 PM

With your experience and thoughtfulness, Jerry, I'm sure you have got that right.

I'd been visiting my parents in Sydney from England every year for years but not since December 2019, sadly; but, on the positive side, my sister and brother-in-law live nearby and visit regularly.

As well as taking them on the outings they love in a hire car, I also made a point of eating in the community dining room with them a couple of times.

I'm hoping I can make it later in the year...

Subject: RE: BS: Who you calling elderly?
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 29 May 21 - 01:40 PM

I've beeen talking with friends about getting old, and one of the hardest things is rarely talked about: isolation. Old folks are often lonely, and feel left behind. I had two sisters. My oldest sister, Marilyn died five years ago. My sister Helen who was four years older than me, begged me not to die and leave her alone. She was very distressed with the thought, so I decided to stick around. My parents died long ago, my sisters are gone, many of my best friends are, too. There's also the physical isolation. There comes a time when traveling across country becomes too difficult. The pandemic robbed us of a year and a half of limited or no air travel. I have regularly visited nursing homes for most of my life doing a variety of programs, and just visiting. Even residents who don't know you are happy to have you visit. No one wants to feel forgotten.

Subject: RE: BS: Who you calling elderly?
From: punkfolkrocker
Date: 29 May 21 - 01:03 AM

Adolescents and young adults feel the best and worst of life far more intensley...

Subject: RE: BS: Who you calling elderly?
From: keberoxu
Date: 28 May 21 - 11:08 PM

Now, don't mind me, but ...

I'm in residential treatment and
there are three of us over the age of sixty here.
We are amongst the most cheerful of the lot.

And here at the psychiatric treatment center,
some of the saddest, most distraught of patients
are those who are the youngest
(you have to be at the age of consent: eighteen or older).

Mind you, we three "elderlies" have our issues or we would not be here to begin with.
But, somehow, we feel thankful to have survived this far.
Meanwhile the youngsters, some of them,
go through each day as though it is the end of the world.
It makes me stop to think.

Subject: RE: BS: Who you calling elderly?
From: Bill D
Date: 28 May 21 - 01:19 PM

I'm sure that in biblical times, 70 was not uncommon... so those who made it were considered 'normal'. They knew that war and accidents etc. happened.
By the Dark Ages and into Medieval eras, more wars and disease etc. were affecting 'average' life span..including, eventually, The Black Death. Since modern medicine in the 1800s to the present, 'average' has gradually increased.
I am the result of thousands of lucky circumstances that didn't kill my ancestors... so are all of you.
   Actually, 2 of my ancestors died at sea in the mid 1600s... but they had a son in England who didn't emigrate to the colonies until several years later.

Every set of statistics has to be understood in context....

Subject: RE: BS: Who you calling elderly?
From: Donuel
Date: 28 May 21 - 08:49 AM

Yep snow soft, tree hard.

Subject: RE: BS: Who you calling elderly?
From: WalkaboutsVerse
Date: 28 May 21 - 08:49 AM

(I keep a hanky damp with antiseptic liquid in my pocket, and wiped my hands before and after, by the way.)

Subject: RE: BS: Who you calling elderly?
From: WalkaboutsVerse
Date: 28 May 21 - 08:37 AM

Day off today and, after practising my serve at the local park, I tried a few of the exercise machines courtside - including, for the first time in my life, the elliptical (mentioned above)...never been skiing but seemed a bit like cross-country skiing movements, and obviously low-impact on the joints.

Now I'm switching between the French Open tennis qualifying and the Giro - what a beautiful country Italy is.

Subject: RE: BS: Who you calling elderly?
From: punkfolkrocker
Date: 28 May 21 - 08:25 AM

My Great Grandad's was a tot of rum every day.

..until he fell over and broke his hip..

hmmmm... [Rum giveth, and rum taketh away...]

Who knows how many more years he still had left in him...???


My Dad's dad's elixir, according to family legend, was 12 gallons of rough cider per week..

He died a fat blind diabetic.

Subject: RE: BS: Who you calling elderly?
From: Jos
Date: 28 May 21 - 08:11 AM

"Why couldn't their secret elixier have been something more do-able...?????"

I had a great-uncle who did survive the Great War and lived into his nineties. His secret 'elixir' was rice pudding. EVERY day.

Subject: RE: BS: Who you calling elderly?
From: Jos
Date: 28 May 21 - 08:08 AM

For many, many people, fighting in the first world war didn't result in a long life.

Subject: RE: BS: Who you calling elderly?
From: Doug Chadwick
Date: 28 May 21 - 07:29 AM

That could be a misunderstanding about measurements of time. If, instead of counting in years, they were counting moons ....

"When I use a word," Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, "it means just what I choose it to mean—neither more nor less."
Lewis Carrol - Through the Looking Glass

There are those who would have us believe that every word in the Bible is true, rather than it just being a story. Beware of cherry-picking "facts" from the Bible as evidence of anything.

DC

Subject: RE: BS: Who you calling elderly?
From: punkfolkrocker
Date: 28 May 21 - 07:29 AM

No men in my immediate family ever make it to 70.
That's a family curse hanging over me..

I'm 62...

The anomalies were my Great grandad, who got to 90 in the mid 1960s,
.. and my Dad's dad who lived to 80, and died in the early 1970s..

Their shared common factor was they both faught in the first world war...???

.. not much help to me..

Why couldn't their secret elixier have been something more do-able...?????

My only hope is that as my sister passed at 49,
maybe I'll get her spare unused allocation of years...

Subject: RE: BS: Who you calling elderly?
From: Jos
Date: 28 May 21 - 06:12 AM

"Adam lived for 930 years, Noah for 950 years Methuselah died aged 969"

That could be a misunderstanding about measurements of time. If, instead of counting in years, they were counting moons - roughly 13 lunar months a year - Adam, Noah and Methuselah would have died in their seventies.

Subject: RE: BS: Who you calling elderly?
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 28 May 21 - 04:49 AM

And I'll be there in two weeks' time. I think I'll save my family some money and combine my birthday party with my wake.

Subject: RE: BS: Who you calling elderly?
From: Doug Chadwick
Date: 28 May 21 - 04:23 AM

the Bible (Psalm 90) gives as a normal life span as 'three score years and ten', which is 70.

But it also said that Adam lived for 930 years, Noah for 950 years Methuselah died aged 969.

I have reached my three score years and ten, so I am living on bonus time.

DC

Subject: RE: BS: Who you calling elderly?
From: Jos
Date: 28 May 21 - 02:27 AM

Although Bill D's ancestors 1000 or more years ago may not have lived more than 30 or 40 years, the Bible (Psalm 90) gives as a normal life span as 'three score years and ten', which is 70.
If we survive accidents, sickness, war, childbirth, and all the other hazards that surround us, 70 should be achievable - and any more is a (usually) welcome bonus.

Subject: RE: BS: Who you calling elderly?
From: JennieG
Date: 27 May 21 - 10:01 PM

My grandfather, Pop Davis, used to say: "I'm as old as my tongue and a little bit older than my teeth".

Subject: RE: BS: Who you calling elderly?
From: Doug Chadwick
Date: 27 May 21 - 07:15 PM

"I'm as old as my little finger and a little bit older than my teeth."

My mother used to say "I'm not quite as old as the top of my head but a bit older than my feet".

DC

Subject: RE: BS: Who you calling elderly?
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 27 May 21 - 07:10 PM

Bill: With the world birth rate dropping like it is, someday Earth my be known as The Planet of the Elderly.I can see the diaster movie now.... Hordes of the Elderly mluntain a revolution charging the gates, angrily waving their thee legged walkers!

Ity will be as exciting as an old SCience Fiction I saw about monster snails. They were six or seven feet tail. A man was reading a book when a young, frightened kid came bursting through the door.
"The snails are comin, the snails are coming! We've got to run!!!!.       "I will, as soon as I finish this book."
"What page are you on?
12"
"What are you reading?"
"Moby Di0k."

Subject: RE: BS: Who you calling elderly?
From: Donuel
Date: 27 May 21 - 07:03 PM

cool Bill.

Ya know Cher is hot at 75.

Subject: RE: BS: Who you calling elderly?
From: Bill D
Date: 27 May 21 - 06:50 PM

I've worked on my genealogy for about 5-6 years. Because of a few lucky things, I've found a very large number of my ancestors. A few were indeed "elderly", like 80-90, but as I go back beyond 1900, 50s & 60s were more common, and WAY back, I mean 1000 to 1600, 30s & 40s were quite common. Some had 3-4 children before dying in their late 20s. (yes, some of the men died in combat or were executed for their religion and some of the women died in childbirth.)

   It's all a matter of perspective.

Subject: RE: BS: Who you calling elderly?
From: JennieG
Date: 27 May 21 - 05:32 PM

Oh, my goodness, Ebbie! Only 54!!

Still, I suppose when that book was published a 54YO old woman was 'old'.....life expectancy being a lot shorter than it is now.

I remember thinking, as I approached my 55th birthday, that I was on a slippery slope downwards. 50 wasn't too bad but 60 was much older, and I was half way there.

Subject: RE: BS: Who you calling elderly?
From: punkfolkrocker
Date: 27 May 21 - 11:00 AM

When we were teenagers we thought 27 year olds were really old.

.. even 19 year olds were on the verge of becoming grown ups;
but still fairly cool and not yet too
boring..

So anybody out parents age or older were well past it...

Subject: RE: BS: Who you calling elderly?
From: Jos
Date: 27 May 21 - 08:21 AM

That brought to mind Mr Salteena - "an elderly man of 42" - in The Young Visiters, written by Daisy Ashford in 1890 when she was nine years old.
Though he was not a grandparent and was in fact quite young at heart.

Subject: RE: BS: Who you calling elderly?
From: Ebbie
Date: 27 May 21 - 06:20 AM

: JennieG - PM
Date: 22 May 21 - 10:48 PM

Jennie, I once read a novel that was published in 1910. In the story there was a querulous old granny who spent most of her days with a shawl over her shoulders and sitting behind the wood stove.

Later in the story it developed that Granny was 54 years old.

Subject: RE: BS: Who you calling elderly?
From: Jos
Date: 27 May 21 - 05:15 AM

When I was young my older relatives, if asked how old they were, would say
"I'm as old as my little finger and a little bit older than my teeth."

I wonder if the 'young' equivalent of 'the elderly' is 'the youthful'.

Subject: RE: BS: Who you calling elderly?
From: Donuel
Date: 27 May 21 - 04:40 AM

My eyes are such that "Bonzo: Age is not a good measure of..."
Lopks to me as "Bronze Age is not a good measure..."

Subject: RE: BS: Who you calling elderly?
From: Mr Red
Date: 26 May 21 - 06:03 PM

Did someone mention biological age?
Different parts age at different rates. And not all equal the chronology. It is written in the telomeres.
Take eyes. You can have mine, if I get a better pair in the deal.

Subject: RE: BS: Who you calling elderly?
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 26 May 21 - 05:14 PM

Bonzo: Age is not a good measure of whether or not someone is elderly, or just high-mileage. I am old (86) but not elderly. My mother lived to be 99, but I never though of her as elderly. Her mind was sharp as a tack, and in her early nineties, she had a curious, adventurour Spirit. My mother was in her low 90's when my father died. The morning after the funeral service she asked me to take her out to buy a "record player." :-) My father didn't want music playing in the house, and she loved music. She'd heard of CDs but didn't know much about them. I took her out and bought her a stereo player and a couple of CDs she weanted. When I came down for breakfast the next morning she was listening to the radio, listening to rap. I asked her why she was listening to rap music. She said "Th last time I liwstened to radio, Glen Miller was still playing." We both laughed. Mom had a t endency to exagerate for a laugh. It clearly runs in the family.

Punkfolkrocker. My wife had dementia and spent the3 last three months of her life in a Dementia ward. I've sung in the nursing home for twenty years, so I am familiar with the range of awareness in a Dementia Waqrd. Normally, a new resident is noit put in a Dementia Ward unless they have Dementia. THere are plenty oif exceptions, and a wide range in level of comprehension. My wife was quiet, and sweet. She didn't talk much, but she could outsmile anyone. She did o.k. in the ward, because she could be who she was at that stager in her life. There were people in the ward who could deck you with a left if you got too close. It requires a lot of patience to deal with impatient people.