SENIORS COPING WITH LIFE – THEN AND NOW

Warm weather last week brought our budding imitation cherry tree quickly into bloom. Now it’s chilly again – highs in the 50s, lows in the 30s.

As a late-life child, I was in my 20s and 30s as my parents grew older while living in the family home. To my dismay, I observed some things about the aging process.

Technology was difficult for them. In the 1980s, the most advanced technology in the home was the VCR. They had one, but they struggled to use it, and in fact, those first units weren’t user-friendly. Today, as Mike and I sit in front of a TV that’s smarter than we are, I can relate to my parents’ struggle. Sometimes we don’t even realize that the remote is upside down! But we do try to keep up with technology because we know it’s fundamental to independent living.

So often things went wrong in my parents’ world. The new oven didn’t work right and the furnace was a lemon, and they couldn’t solve these problems. Of course, if you can’t get satisfaction from the retailer / manufacturer, sooner or later you have to junk it and replace, but their frugality just wouldn’t allow it. I thought of this as I limped along with that Kenmore dishwasher for five years before we finally replaced it, and we still have that strange refrigerator. If it keeps the milk cold, the produce freezes. The thing is, though, you just don’t know these days. You can trade in your working unit for one that doesn’t work at all.

My parents had other difficulties as well. Often, they would drive to my house with a dilemma in hand, and before my children were in school, I would move car seats from my car to theirs and drive them wherever they needed to go. (My dad called me “efficient” – high praise!) I did the driving and sometimes I even did the talking. And sometimes I would say, “Hey, we can do this with a phone call,” whereupon I would make the call while they sat by in awe of my abilities.

Fortunately, Mike handles our business, or we support each other through what we need to do. Everyone has these things, and staying on top of it is part of staying among the living.

And it wasn’t just that my parents found it difficult to keep up with technology and solve problems. They continued to be interested in politics and world affairs. They watched the news followed by Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune, but they didn't follow current movies and celebrities, AND they simply didn’t care. It made me sad, but today, I can relate. I don’t know today’s celebrities, and I don’t care. KW