Dementia or?

The young man was adamant. “My mother doesn’t have Alzheimer’s”, he said. “She has dementia.”

That would be like saying his mother doesn’t have leukaemia, she has cancer.

Just as cancer is the umbrella word for a host of different types of disease, so is dementia the umbrella word for many types of disorders.

Dementia is the generic term for the loss of thinking, remembering, and reasoning skills that interfere with daily life and activities.

MCI – Medium Cognitive Impairment is not dementia. Instead, it is a stage in between the decline of normal aging and the more serious decline of dementia.

There are several different types of dementia, the most common being Alzheimer’s Disease. The next is Vascular and Mixed Dementia, followed by Frontotemporal Degeneration, and LewyBody Dementia. Each of these share symptoms but each is different and within each, there may be variations.

Alzheimer’s disease is a progressive neurogenerative disease. According to the Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation, (ADDF) “It begins slowly from a clinical point of view. The first symptom will likely be short term memory loss. As it develops, cognitive and functional impairment will become increasingly noticeable and severe. Aging is the highest risk factor, but Alzheimer’s is not a normal part of aging”. The ADDF website lists several causes: inflammation, misfolded proteins, mitochondrial dysfunction, vascular disease, synaptic loss, and loss of brain cells.

Early onset Alzheimer’s affects people under the age of 65. Although the symptoms may be the same, this type of dementia has a different genetic base than that of Alzheimer’s disease. In that it may pose great stress on family life, the ability to earn an income, and the stigma that comes with misunderstanding, this can be an especially cruel type of dementia.

Vascular and mixed dementia are the result of reduced blood flow to various regions of the brain. They commonly follow a stroke, or series of ministokes. Symptoms may include disorientation, confusion, balance, and/or numbness on one side of the face.

There are two types of Dementia with LewyBodies– Dementia with LewyBodies and Parkinson’s Dementia. They are associated with deposits of a protein called alpha-synuclein in the brain and they affect thinking, movement, behaviour and mood. The symptoms are more movement-based than Alzheimer’s and memory loss tends to come later, as the disease progresses. Lewy Body Dementia symptoms include REM sleep disorders, vision and spatial issues, and changes in movement. The second type has the symptoms of Parkinson’s disease, stiffness of muscles, tremors, a shuffling walk. In the first, cognitive and movement decline occur about the same time. With Parkinson’s Dementia, the movement disorders come first, with cognitive decline occurring about a year later.

Frontotemporal Dementiais an umbrella word for uncommon disorders that are the result of progressive nerve cell loss in the frontal (behind the forehead) or temporal (behind the ears) areas of the brain. Symptoms include changes in behaviour, personality, and language loss. It affects a younger group – typically between 40 and 45 — and may result in socially inappropriate behaviour and impulsiveness. Frontotemporal dementia is sometimes misdiagnosed as a psychiatric issue.

There is no cure for any of these types of dementia, nor are there any drugs that will alter or reverse their course.  There are some drugs that may alleviate some of the symptoms.  Most importantly, there are now over 120 drug trials underway, as well as research into the use of existing drugs, that offer possibilities.

In July 2018, philanthropist Bill Gates and the Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation (ADDF) co-founder Leonard Lauder announced a new initiative, Diagnostics Accelerator, to develop novel biomarkers for the early detection of Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias. Other philanthropists have joined Gates and Lauder in funding and, as a result, $30million has been dedicated to this initiative.

To learn more about these types of dementia, I recommend the following websites: The National Institute of Health, the National Institute on Aging, the Mayo Clinic, The Alzheimer’s Association, and The Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation.  The latter’s site, CognitiveVitality.org is an excellent source of information about lifestyle changes that may slow progression of the disease, as well as diet and nutrition.

aging, Alzheimer's disease, alzheimer's research, memory, recognizing dementia, Uncategorized

October 31, 2019

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The Touch Me Nots

Touch: It’s one word with myriad meanings.

There is the touch of encouragement, congratulations, compassion, the touch of bonhomie. There is the patronizing, demeaning touch that says “There,there, little one.” There is the sense of wonder touch: Can this beautiful child be really mine? There is the sensual touch, the one that sings the praises of skin. There is the sexual touch, the one that arouses. And there is the violent touch, the one that brings pain, loss of dignity, invasion and, sometimes, death.

Reading the comments of women who were offended by Joe Biden, I have to conclude that we have moved from the Betty Friedan and Gloria Steinem School of Feminism to a group of Touch-Me-Not women who seem unable to differentiate between the types of touch. Like their namesake flower, these fragile women recoil, close up, when touched.

I envision them encased in a Lucite cube, protected fore, aft and sideways, from any uninvited contact. Only those who already have an intimate connection are allowed inside their inviolate private space. How sad for them that they will never know the unexpected thrill that comes from touching a stranger and feeling an attraction. How discomforting that when they fall down, they will not welcome the hand of a stranger reached out to help. They will miss so many tactile experiences in order to protect their private space.

Private space: It’s a modern, western, notion. And a luxury.
The idea of private space in crowded cities is ludicrous. Try finding it in an Egyptian market, or a street in Calcutta. But then, one doesn’t even have to go that far. In the streets of the poorest parts of our world, where families huddle together for warmth, private space is a non-starter.

The Touch-Me-Nots must live a limited life. No rides on the bus or subway in rush hour, no crowded elevators. Line-ups at the supermarket or the movie theater will surely be offensive. Being attached to one’s private space will make an urban existence very difficult. And it undoubtedly would make one unsuitable for life as a public figure, expected to mingle with strangers. How will they manage on the floor of a day care center, surrounded by four year olds? If the senior citizen in the nursing home wants to dance, will they reject him? Would they withhold a hug from a grieving mother or widow? Would they touch the hand of a veteran in a military hospital? Will they replace the handshake with a nod of the head or a formal bow?

May they never know the skin hunger that women like me, 86 years old and widowed, feel. What we wouldn’t give for a hand on our shoulder, a kiss on the back of our heads, the stroke of a hand on ours. We long for the intimacy of touch.

Joe Biden is right when he says that touch is connection. A child hugs its parent’s leg. An old couple hold hands. A mother strokes the head of a sick child. A father ruffles the hair of a son or daughter. A puppy sits on its master’s foot. Lovers hold each other in the night, confirming their vows.

We cannot live fully without human touch. Study after study has shown the therapeutic value of the hug and how the feel of the human hand can affect the ability of newborn to thrive. So, let’s clone Joe Biden. We can use more men and women who truly empathize and are not afraid to show it.

Personally, I want a president who hugs the whole country, who feels its hurts and tries to mend them, who touches us with hope, who whispers in our ears that we will get through this, a President who is connected to the real lives of the citizens he represents. I would recoil if Donald Trump touched me. If Joe Biden gives me a hug, I will give him a big hug back.

relationship issues, touch, Biden, touching,, Uncategorized

May 24, 2019

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A Mother’s Day Penance

via A Mother’s Day Penance

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May 14, 2019

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A Mother’s Day Penance

My mother died when she was in her fifties.

That was too young for her: And too young for me.

I did not have the chance to prove that I could be a dutiful daughter.

Oh, I did all the right Hallmark-card things. I remembered her birthday and Mother’s Day and Christmas.  I bought her presents, invited her to my home and visited hers occasionally.

I could make excuses for myself — I was the mother of two small children, had a full time job, a husband whose work required certain social commitments, she lived a distance away. But they are just excuses.  I was just too busy to be a dutiful daughter because my priorities were wrong.

I know that now, when I am in my mid eighties, having lived more than thirty years longer than my mother. Too late to be smart. I owed her more.  And not just in the sentimental sense of debt.  I should have let her share in my life and accomplishments. I like to think that if she had lived longer, I would have.

When in high school, I began to win prizes and medals, I resented what looked to me like her wanting to share the credit.  I had won those things, not her. Later, when I was getting ready to move to the United States with my husband, I had to get the long version of my birth certificate and I saw the discrepancy between her marriage date and my birth.  I confronted her and did that with the narcissistic “I”. It was all about me. How could she have been so strict with me about premarital sex when she was guilty of it herself? I never thought to ask her what discovering she was pregnant meant to her, what it was like to make that painful and difficult decision, whether she ever regretted it.

She was in her final year of nursing, so, despite the laws of the time, surely an abortion would have been possible. Instead, she gave up her nursing career, married, and produced a baby girl – me.  Every good thing that happened in her too short life after that was the result of her own ingenuity, hard work, and determination. All the bad, the violence, the constant worry about money, the disappointments, were the result of her decision to become a mother.

Whatever I have accomplished is a continuing gift from her. First life, then love, faith in me, education, loyalty.  She was not a women who gave praise, but when my brother and I went to empty her house after she died, it was clear that she was proud of me.  In every drawer, there was a medal, or a clipping, or a certificate. She had a right to expect more of me. I am sure that I was a disappointment to her. When I was on the stage, taking a bow, accepting a compliment, she should have been there, right beside me.

Worse, perhaps, in the year after my father died – also in his mid fifties – my mother changed. There was a carelessness about her, an apathy that was not like her. I did my thing – I took charge. “First, let’s see if there is anything medically wrong”, I told my brother. I involved our family doctor, and he arranged a battery of tests. The results were all fine. There was nothing physically wrong with her, according to the medical profession. So I gave her a lecture – that she was still a young woman, with life ahead of her, that she needed to get her act together. A few weeks later, she died.

I learned a hard lesson then, that when the behavior of someone you know well changes in a major way, there is something wrong. No matter what the professionals say. Now, a widow myself, still close to that first year after death, when I did not want to get out of bed, when grief paralyzed me, I am ashamed of my lecture to my mother. How little I knew, about life, about love, about loss. What a pompous ass I was.

In the introspective moments that are part of being an octogenarian, I realize now that I never knew my mother as a person. I missed the chance. Oh, I could tell you that she loved to dance, that she played the piano by ear, that she made great butter tarts and banana cake, that she had a sense of mischief, was a flirt, that she had tiny feet, that she was the weight of a feather, that she sat beside my father’s bedside, interpreting every twitch of that comatose man as a renewal of life for more than a year, that she cared for first her mother, and then her father, in our home, until their deaths, without a word of complaint.  A model of the dutiful daughter.

But I do not know what she thought of her life, what dreams she had, what regrets, whom she might have loved, what she was like pre-marriage, whether she was happy, who she was, deep down in the heart of her private self.

I never asked.

Now, I would.

Too little, too late.

aging, grief, memory, mothers, Mother's day, mourning, parental care, parental care, relationship issues, Uncategorized, widowhood

May 14, 2019

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Antisemitism, from Kristallnacht to Pittsburgh 

This has been a sombre week: November 11th was the hundredth anniversary of the end of World War 1, a solemn reminder of the awesome cost of war. A war that, unfortunately, was not the end of wars.

November 9th marked the night in 1938 when Germans burned 1000 synagogues, plundered homes and businesses, rounded up 30,000 Jewish men and sent them to concentration camps    – the night known in history as Kristallnacht, the night of the broken glass. Eighty years later, on October 27  – just two Sabbath ago – eleven Jews were killed while they were worshipping at a synagogue in Pittsburgh.

Clearly, in the intervening years, anti-Semitism did not go away. Nor was it confined to Germany.  In the thirties, while Nazis were terrorizing Jews in Germany, elsewhere Jews faced quotas at universities, understood that certain clubs and buildings would not accept them, met signs that said NO DOGS and NO JEWS outside hotels.  As Hitler’s armies advanced across country after country, the news of the persecution of Jews became more widely reported, only to be discounted or ignored.  Some influential Americans formed the America First movement, using its stance against the USA entering the war as a platform to demonize Jewish influence.  At the same time, the Canadian- born Father Coughlin attracted hundreds of thousands of listeners to his American radio broadcasts in which he embraced Hitler and Mussolini and denounced Jewish interests. And, in Washington and Ottawa, diplomats proudly wore the title “Arabist” and greeted the plight of Jews trying to escape Hitler with indifference.

With the end of World War two the world was forced to acknowledge the consequences.  Newsreels portraying the awful truth of the concentration camps, the pictures of Jews being rounded up, marched into gas chambers, the testimony of survivors and the Nuremberg trials made it impossible to ignore the cost of that indifference.  The horror of the holocaust silenced anti-Semitism. Temporarily.  For a while, the conscience of the world was awoken and  it was socially unacceptable to express antisemitic views.

But then came the holocaust deniers, and the birth of Israel. Israel provided the anti-semites with cover. It was not that they were against the Jews: it was Israel that they were against. It is a tragic irony that the country born from horror of the holocaust would become accused of fascism and apartheid,  would be the butt of United Nations condemnation. When it turned out that the Israel, like other governments, was not perfect, that its leaders made political and public relations blunders, instituted policies that were debatable, those things counted more in world’s opinion than Israel’s  giving up the Sinai to make peace with Egypt, its offering viable ways to create a two state solution,  the very creation of a democratic vibrant state, its contributions to the world in medicine, technology, science . The Palestinians became the cause celebre, while terrorists stalked the streets of Israel, a coalition of Arab armies led by Egypt and Syria invaded on Yom Kippur, and Israelis, to this day, with rockets raining down continually, have never known a moment of true peace.

In this century, antisemitism comes from both the far right and the far left. and has been openly and sometimes violently expressed in France and Germany.  Here, in North America, there has been an onslaught of desecration of synagogues and Jewish cemeteries, news  items often buried on the back page, if reported at all. On campuses all across the United States and Canada, the BDS movement — Boycott, Divest, and Sanction Israel – is camouflage for persecution of Jewish students and increasingly angry displays of antisemitism.

At the same time, President Trump has whipped up a nationalism that exploits the many anti-groups – anti-black, anti-gay, anti-women, anti- Muslim, anti-elites, all the groups looking for scapegoats for their grievances – they have all found an echo of their discontent in his rhetoric.  He did not create the hate that dominates the news today and that led to the Pittsburgh murders – but he gave that hate a home.  He has made hate acceptable.

So, yes, what happened in Pittsburgh was a shocking event.  But we should not have been shocked “that it happened here”. And when politicians try to reassure us by telling us that this is not what America is, well, perhaps not.  But there is a grave danger that this is what America is becoming.

Donald Trump, grief, Holocaust, International Court, Nuremberg Trials, Human rights, war crimes, crimes against humanity, Israel, BDS movement, antisemitism, antisemites,, The United States, Uncategorized

October 31, 2018

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Prosecuting Evil:War makes murderers of us all.

Let me introduce you to two remarkable men, Canadian film producer, Barry Avrich, and Romanian born Ben Ferencz, investigator of Nazi war crimes, Chief Prosecutor for the United States Army at a trial in Nuremberg, and advocate of the establishment of an international rule of law and of an International Criminal Court.

If you happened to watch an interview on Sixty Minutes last year, you will have met Ben Ferencz. That is how he came to the attention of Avrich.  His family was watching the program and they called out to him, “You have to come and see this man.” Intrigued, as everyone who meets or hears Ferencz is, Avrich did some research and was surprised to see that although there were media interviews here and there, particularly in legal circles. no one had gathered together the account of his inspiring life. He set out to correct that and the result is Prosecuting Evil, a documentary that premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival a few weeks ago.

I was privileged to see it at its American Premiere at Temple Emanu_El in New York City. This is an important film, important at any time in our history but even more so now when we find ourselves in this frightening time, when bigotry, intolerance, hate, every kind of evil, has been given license to thrive.

Ben Ferencz is now 99 years old and a great advertisement for aging.  The man has all his intelligence, his wit, his humor, and energy.  I fell a little bit in love with him which won’t do me the slightest bit of good as he has been happily married to the same woman for 72 years.  As I heard him describe his first exposure to the concentration camps and then his role as the prosecutor in the Einsatzgruppen Case, I was impressed by his ability to separate emotion from reason.

His description of the camps is vivid – from the emaciated survivors to the bone filled ovens and the stench over all.  But, when it came to prosecuting the 22 men he put on trial, he insisted that it was not vengeance or revenge that would bring the men to justice, but the facts.  And he had the facts, for the Germans had carefully recorded in a notebook their forays into towns and villages, scrupulously noting how many Jews they had killed each day. All of those men were found guilty, 13 received death sentences of which four were carried out.

In the documentary, Ferencz focuses on one of the Germans, pointing out that he was a cultured, educated man, a good husband, good father, good neighbor. “Except”, he says “he killed thousands of Jews.” What made him cross that line?  There is no doubt in Ferencz voice.  “War”, he says “War makes murderers of us all.”

It is for that reason that he has been an ardent advocate of an international court which, he believes ,used properly, could help the world avoid wars.

Ben Ferencz’ family fled pogroms in Romania and emigrated to the United States where they settled in Manhattan’s Lower East Side, a crowded, ghetto-like home to many immigrants.  There was little money, but education was valued. A teacher recognized his abilities and encouraged him to enroll at City College of New York where he won a scholarship to Harvard.  He enlisted in the Army and served in an anti-aircraft artillery unit.  In 1945, he was assigned to the team that collected evidence for war crimes. After leaving the army, he was  asked to return to Germany, to join the prosecutors at the Nuremberg trials. Following that, he helped secure reparation for the Nazis’ victims, and played an important part in negotiations that led to the historic Reparation Agreement between Israel and Germany.

Returning to New York in 1956, he entered private practice and then joined the movement to establish an International Criminal Court to deal with crimes against humanity and war crimes.  He remains disappointed that although the USA signed the treaty it did not ratify it. He has not hesitated to criticize many of the actions of the United States, from its role in Vietnam to the Iraq war, Trump policies, and the current political climate.

He is a serious man who is full of joy.  Despite all that he has seen of evil, he and his wife raised four children.  That is surely the definition of hope. And instead of giving into despair, he espouses a route to change the future for the better.  That is also the definition of hope.

I urge everyone to make it a point to see this film and stress that its importance goes beyond the obvious relationship to the Jewish community.  Over the next few weeks and months, it will be available in many cities in Canada and The United States.   In Toronto it will be shown on November 11th, in a special benefit for the survivors of the holocaust who are living in poverty.  The event will take place at the Ted Rogers Hot Doc Theater.

 

Donald Trump, Holocaust, International Court, Nuremberg Trials, Human rights, war crimes, crimes against humanity, The United States, Uncategorized

October 26, 2018

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Kipling’s The Power of The Dog

IMG_0464It is one month since my beloved cavalier King Charles, Brewster died.  He was almost thirteen years old, my friend, my companion, my protector, and a warm, loving link with my husband. 

Brewster came into my life when my husband was in the middle stages of Alzheimer’s.  He walked into the house, turned into the library, and climbed on my husband’s lap.  And right into both of our hearts. And some years later, when Alzheimer’s had a greater hold on my husband, and conversation was very limited, he would still remember to ask, “Where is my doggy?”

And his doggy was right beside him, along with the rest of the family, when Oscar died.

As I mourned, so did Brewster, sleeping on Oscar’s pillow, looking at me, questioning me, “Where is my master?”

In those months after Oscar’s death, I don’t think I would have gotten out of bed, had it not been for Brewster.  The temptation to just pull the sheets up over my head, give in to grief, and let the rest of the world go by was tremendous.  But I could not.  Brewster needed to be fed, Brewster needed to be walked, and Brewster liked and got attention.

He was a beautiful boy -in dog parlance his color was known as Ruby but it was more terra-cotta than that, with platinum streaks.  Women stopped to rub his ears, envious of his coloring.  Children adored him, and he them. Other dog owners asked about his breed.  He was clearly a Cavalier, but he was big for the breed, so confusion was understandable. Slowly, as Brewster pulled me into the world, I began to reconnect with it.  The grief remains, and always will, but it no longer paralyzes me.  Thanks to Brewster.

As he had spent a lot of time with my daughter’s two Labs, Luna and Clemmie, he preferred big dogs to little ones but like all of his breed, he recognized his cousins.  He had very nice dog manners, put up with puppies pawing him and nipping at his ears or climbing on him, with unlimited patience. The love of his life was Clemmie and although he had neither the equipment or the height to consummate that love, he never gave up trying.  And if there had been a cartoon balloon over Clemmie’s head, it would have said, “Men! What can you do about them.”

At home he liked scotch flavored ice cubes, and was a frustrated decorator. Wherever there were cushions, he was there, sorting them, examining them, throwing some on the floor, rearranging the rest to suit himself and then carefully circling himself down into a comfort zone on top of them. He had no interest  in toys, or balls, or games, or tricks. Brewster had decided that it was enough in life just to be.  A lesson all of us could use from time to time.

We were joined at the hip.  I organized my small social life around his needs.  No dog walkers for me – whatever the weather, I was up and out with him four times a day, and always home to give him his meals.  His favorite time of the day was the cocktail hour when I had my scotch and he had his bone stuffed with cheese and we sat together to look at television. What a vocal critic he was.

I miss him terribly and many friends, knowing what he meant to me have sent me notes and cards.  The Canadian actress, Nuala Fitzgerald Cowan, sent me a Rudyard Kipling poem that will resonate with all dog owners:

The Power of the Dog, Rudyard Kipling, 1865-1936

“There is sorrow enough in the natural way

From men and women to fill our day;

And when we are certain of sorrow in store,

Why do we always arrange for more?

Brothers and sisters, I bid you beware

Of giving your heart to a dog to tear. 

Buy a pup and your money will buy

Love unflinching that cannot lie –

Perfect passion and worship fed

By a kick in the ribs or a pat on the head.

Nevertheless it is hardly fair 

To risk your heart for a dog to tear. 

When the fourteen years which Nature permits

Are closing in asthma, or tumor, or fits

And the vet’s unspoken prescription runs

To lethal chambers or loaded guns

Then you will find – it’s your own affair 

But — you’ve given your heart to a dog to tear. 

When the body that lived at your single will,

With its whimper of welcome, is stilled (how still!).

When the spirit that answered your every mood

Is gone — wherever it goes — for good.

You will discover how much you care,

And will give your heart to a dog to tear. 

We’ve sorrow enough in the natural way

When it comes to burying Christian clay.

Our lives are not given, but only lent,

At compound interest of ten percent.

Though it is not always the case, I believe,

That the longer we’ve kept ’em, the more we do grieve:

For, when debts are payable, right or wrongs,

A short-time loan is as bad as a long —

So why in — Heaven — (before we are there)

Should we give our hearts to a dog to tear?”

Dear Brew: My heart is torn, but I can bear it because it was worth it, to love you and to be loved by you. Climb on OScar’s lap and wait for me.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

aging, Alzheimer's disease, dogs, dog's death,, grief, loving, mourning, Uncategorized

October 11, 2018

8 Comments

A Dual Citizen’s Fourth of July

 

I have lived equal parts of my adult life in Canada and in The United States, and I have dual citizenship, Canadian and American.

Where is my heart? In both places.

But, the part of my heart that loves America hurts.  My bank of outrage is in overdraft. My vocabulary for the unspeakable is exhausted.

But still, the love is there.

Marriage took me twice to the United States: For three years, in the mid 50s, to Ann Arbor, Michigan, where my then husband was studying on a track scholarship. And then in 1980, i moved to Manhattan where I married a third generation New Yorker.

I did not want to live on the surface of that vibrant, cosmopolitan city, but to be engaged in its communities, to know more than Park and Fifth Avenues.  As so much of making lives better is dependent on public policy, I needed the right to  vote in the United States and, fortunately, I was able to become an American citizen without giving up my Canadian citizenship.

During that heady,, exciting time in the United States, I met a wide range of people who knew how to use their power – from Brooke Astor, who used the power of money, to the grandmothers in the Bronx who used the power of love to get rid of the drug dealers on their block. I dined with intellectuals like Arthur Schlesinger and Ted Sorenson, Bill Buckley and Osborne Elliott.  Sitting on the periphery of my husband’s foundations’ projects in criminal justice and housing, along with my board service on the Ciizens Committee for New York, i met individuals whose lives were dedicated to making a difference.  I had a wide experience in the USA. We lived in Manhattan, spent months in Maine, found an oasis on Long Island.  As Ontario’s Agent General, I met business leaders as well as artists, journalists, and government officials in Atlanta, Boston, chicago, and Dallas, and met the Governors of many states.

Back home, when I met someone who said they were anti-American, I could with justification ask them, “Which American?” so varied is the country, and its people.

Now, for myself, I can answer, “Which American?”  Donald Trump.

Donald Trump represents everything I abhor in a human being.  Do not let anyone tell you that he is a New Yorker – he is the antithesis of everything that makes someone a New Yorker.  Manhattan did not accept him socially, and it did not vote for him.  Nor did I. Fortunately, everyone I know did vote in the last presidential election and none of them voted for Trump  My stomach churns at the thought of those who did not vote,  who let their dislike of Hilary override what was at stake.

So, back in Canada now, a widow, choosing to end my days where they began, will I join in a boycott of American products to stick my finger in Trump’s eye? Yes.

Will I continue to visit my daughter and grandson in Maine as well as friends in New York? Yes.

Will I renounce my American citizenship?  No.  Because that would be giving in, giving up hope that concerned citizens can take the government and the culture back.  I believe they can, and that they will.

I have beside me The Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States of America. Peter Jennings, who like me was a Torontonian living in Manhattan, always carried a copy of it in his pocket.

“We hold these truths to be self evident: that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness–That to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among men,  deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed, that whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or abolish it, and to institute new Government….”

The Mueller report is coming, hopefully in time to affect a Supreme Court Nomination.

And November is coming.

 

Donald Trump, Fourth of July, happiness, holidays, New York City, President, The American Constitution, The United States, Uncategorized, Voting

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July 4, 2018

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Rebranding old age: The Finials

Old age needs a public relations specialist. It’s time to rebrand, to market this part of life as just that — a natural phase– to be celebrated rather than feared,  as a time of privilege rather than something  to endure, a time worthy of respect, and even honor.

That is coming, because the baby boomers are on their way, in waves.   And,  just as many of them have gone through their adult life accompanied by trainers, life coaches,  self-help books and therapists, they are approaching old age with a coterie of academic and professional specialists with programs to offset every part the aging process. Let us hope they come up with a new name.  The generation before mine told us in no uncertain terms what society could do with “the golden years”.  I find “senior” as precious as “junior”, and don’t want to be either.  Perhaps we will be known as the finials.

In the meantime, my generation is already here and we would like a little respect please. We lived through an amazing century and our accomplishments in those years, from creating an airplane to fly through the clouds to storing all our information in the cloud, are the foundation of the future. We have been though wars, the depression, the sexual and the technological revolutions: We have experience and wisdom to share.

Who are we? We’re you, with the added on value of more birthdays. Like you, we are not a monolithic group. There is no unilateral “We” in old age. We are the medically frail and the strong; the curious and the bored; the strivers and the contented ones.  Some of us are on scooters, walkers or in wheelchairs; others are tap-dancing and stretching on yoga mats. One in  three of us over the age of 80 is in a stage of dementia. One of the other two is caring for that one.

Many of us are “downsizing”, choosing assisted living,  moving in with our children.  Depending on the ability to function independently, some will go to a nursing home.  Too  many are homeless, lost to society and too often, abandoned by it.

We are as individual now, as we were in our younger days. The bullies are still bullies, the rude are still rude, the bossy are still bossy, the caregivers are still giving.   Only, in some cases, more so.  Some want to live beyond a hundred, others are content to accept whatever fate offers, opting for no more tests or intrusive procedures. We are not curiosities, specimens to be designated as “cute” or “amazing”, because we can walk, talk, dance, think, fall in love, have sex.  We are in our old age, not our infancy.

Each oI us will decide when we are willing to embrace the label “old”.  Something will trigger that — a loss, health, weariness.  For me, it was the number, 85, with the sharp realization that time is now truly finite.  If there are things I want to do, say, write, amends to make, I had better get on with it.

I see this last stage of my life  as the true coming of age.  Forget the bar and bat- mitvahs, sweet sixteen, the years of getting the vote, the right to buy alcohol, being eligible for military service or any of the landmark birthdays.  This — old age — is maturity.  It is a marriage of aches and pains, loss  and heartaches with  possibilities, a true sense of the meaning of time, and, perhaps above all, an  understanding of who we truly are, beyond the many labels we have worn throughout our lives.

Who are we?  Cherish us, for we are you, in a not so far off future.

Joan Sutton Straus’ book, The Alzheimer’s Diary, one woman’s experience from caregiver to widow, is available at your favorite on-line book store.  All profits from the sale of the book go to The Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation.

aging, Alzheimer's disease, grief, old age, Uncategorized

April 23, 2018

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Social isolation and loneliness in seniors

A special note to my Canadian readers.  Steve Paikin who is one of the best journalists working today, hosts the TVO program The Agenda.  Tomorrow night, Tuesday, April 3, at 8 and 11, the program will tackle what can be done to prevent social isolation and loneliness in seniors.  As this is a topic that interests me, I will be tuned in and if you are approaching the last third or your life, or worrying about your parents, I suggest that you do too.  Some think we are in an epidemic of loneliness.  In the UK, the government has appointed a Minister of Loneliness.  How much government can or should do, will be part of The Agenda tomorrow night.

aging, depression, Uncategorized

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April 2, 2018

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Old Age: The Myths

A few months ago,  I turned  85. That makes me an old lady.

Hearing that, there are those who will question my calling myself a lady.  Almost all will rush to contradict me, to tell me that I am not old.  So adamant will the latter be, one might think I was confessing to a terrible disease.

To their assurances that I am not old, I can only respond, “Nonsense, if I am not old at 85, when will I be?”

I relish admitting my age because I do not think that the word ‘old’ is a pejorative.  I have earned the years and except for the blight of those anguished  times when a child struggled with terrible disease, there are none I would give up.  Yes, old age has its baggage — but so did youth and middle age.  The downsides of aging are well-known, everyone recognizes them.  But along with the aches and pains, financial worries and loneliness that may come with age, there also comes a very special kind of freedom.

So, before you send the bromides, all designed to deny the reality of old age,  let’s deal with them.

Some will tell me that I am only as old as I feel.  True, but that was true also at sixteen when, with a little Kleenex in my bra, I could convince myself that I looked 18.  At forty,  I had days when, depending on what I had imbibed the night before,  I felt like Methuselah, others when I was as frisky as a teenager. The difference is that the day an 85-year-old feels as frisky as a teenager is the day he or she will fall and break a hip. At 85, one approaches friskiness with caution.

Get young friends, some say, as if that is an inoculation against aging. . Think about how silly that is.  At 85, what choice is there?  I am almost always the oldest person in the room.  My young friends are invaluable when I have computer or iPhone problems, and they do keep me in touch with their world.,  The latter, however, is a mixed  blessing – their world can send me into despair: For them, and for what I believe they are missing.

They cannot. however, replace the old friends, the ones who knew us long ago, who observed our development, witnessed the events that shaped us.  Losing them is one of the most difficult parts of aging.  With each death, we lose a part of ourselves. Old friends are the link between us and both our personal history and the history of the world we knew. They remember the depression, World War 2, the fifties and the tumultuous decades that followed.  They remember when there was no television, when families bought ice from a truck, when telegrams were delivered to the door. The young have little interest in anything that happened before the internet, and if it isn’t on Google, it doesn’t exist.  I recently told a forty-year old that a building looked as though it had come through the blitz – he had no idea what the blitz was.  Without our peers,  we are unmoored, disconnected from our own reality. .

Others will insist that 85 is the new 75. To which I say, “Nonsense.  I have been 75, and 85 is very different, if not physically, psychologically.”

Which brings me to the other bromide, that 85 is just a number.  Yes, but what a number!  This one comes with flashing lights, pay attention, pay attention, pay attention. At 85, one cannot escape the realization that there is  more life behind you than there is  in front of you. That perhaps is what Philip Roth meant we he referred to 85 as “dark old age”.

I am not for a moment suggesting that the old have a monopoly on death.  We all know young people who have left this earth far too early.  But the young go to bed  believing in their immortality.  The aged tend to go to sleep each night wondering “Will this will be the night, will they wake up the next morning?”  At 85, one lives with the quiet acceptance of the inevitability of death.

We would all like to go easily, in full stride, painlessly.  But there is no menu, we do not choose.  Keeping ourselves healthy and strong makes us feel good but, in the end, we have no control over the way we die.The toned and fit may go before the indolent and slothful   Death keeps its own counsel. It creeps us slowly, or lashes out suddenly, It  arrives in a cloud of morphine, or as sedately as Shakespearean sleep, it announces itself through disease; it mocks our years at the gym. It gives us time to prepare, or it leaves our families with mountains of mess to sort. So, prepare.

I am from a generation whose mothers told us to wear clean underwear because we might be in an accident.  At 85, I  hesitate to leave dishes in the sink before I leave the house. What would my children think if they found my nest a mess?

Above all, in Philip Roth’s dark old age, you find yourself living life both forward and backward, examining self, pondering how to make the remaining days meaningful.  The author, Ward Just, might well have been thinking of this old lady when he wrote these words in his book, A Dangerous Friend:

“It is always necessary to look forward and backward at the same time.  Only in that way can we preserve our identities and live truthfully.  You know the end of things  as well as I do. We cannot pretend not to know them or deny that they exist.When we relate events from the past we know the results and must acknowledge them, whether or not they bring us understanding, or consultation, or shame.:

In th next blog: Rebranding Old Age. 

Joan Sutton Straus’ book, The Alzheimer’s Diary, from Caregiver to Widow, is available at your favorite on-line bookstore.

 

aging, financial issues, memory, mourning, myths of old age, Uncategorized

March 26, 2018

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Foolish Old Age

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June 19, 2017

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Foolish Old Age

We read in the newspaper about the death of an old man or woman and the lawsuit that follows when the family members discover that their inheritance has been spent on. or left to a newly found companion. The almost universal opinion will be that the old person has been foolish, taken in by false affection.

Let me tell you. We are entitled to be foolish.

I am in my 85th year, and that, however some might want to avoid the term, is definitely old age. An age when you contemplate how many years are left to you, what you want to do with them, an age when your natural desires might seem to others to be foolish. Foolish because so many still believe that with age we should lose the longing to be touched, to give and get affection, to share intimacy with someone when the crowd has gone home.

And so, we are vulnerable, vulnerable to people who pay attention to us, who really listen to us, who recognize that there is still a needy human being within the aged body. It is not about sex, although that can still be part of it – let me shock you — even at the most advanced age!  It is more, much more, about a longing for intimacy, the shared joke, the post dinner critique, the hand held in a movie theater, and above all, the chance to once again, experience desiring and being desired.

Families should not underestimate the temptation. I’ve been there. After my husband’s death I met a man who proceeded to court me. He was sophisticated, cultured, well-travelled, good-looking, my age, and we had met in the synagogue – what could go wrong? After a few weeks, over dinner, he asked me for $100,000 to invest in a wheat futures scheme. I said no, and never heard from him again

Fortunately, I am not that vulnerable. But I did admit to myself that if I had billions, if I could have afforded to lose that money, I might have said yes, just to have someone like that in my life. The experience threw me. Not because I lost him as a companion, but because of how I suddenly saw myself. Did I look that needy? That vulnerable? Did I look like prey?

I did indeed feel foolish for thinking that a man so attractive, who could easily have the company of younger women,  would court a woman his own age for any reason other than advantage. But then, he was Hungarian and, as politically incorrect as that stereotype may be, it unleashed my sense of humor as I recalled the Hungarian in My Fair Lady, and I laughed, at him, and even better, at myself.

Because my husband was eighteen years older than I, I have lived my old age twice – first his, and now my own. Living through his, I witnessed any number of older men and women whose lives grew narrower through the combination of widowhood, isolation and age. Some were called foolish.

One bought the friendship of a younger woman who kept her alive by letting her live a vicarious life. She came and told the older woman all the details of her intimate life – it was a living soap opera. The young woman profited from it – expensive jewelry, real estate, access to a credit card, cash. Those of us who watched were horrified. But who can put a value on what this young woman gave to our friend? To interfere would have been to leave a vacuum we could not fill.

Another has a wardrobe that calls to her. Recently, I took her out to dinner to a perfectly ordinary local bistro. As she is very unsteady on her feet her caregiver brought her to meet me there.  She arrived wearing a full length mink coat, an evening gown, long white gloves, and a-glitter with jewelry. Every eye was on her. Was it inappropriate to the occasion and the place? Yes, of course. But who can blame her for perhaps, just once more, wanting to be the woman she once always was, for recreating for a brief evening, the world of glamor she had lived. Read more…

aging, foolish old age, happiness, living, loving, parental care, relationship issues, Uncategorized

June 19, 2017

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The Walls We Build

On the eve of the inauguration of a President who wants to build walls, some thoughts.
History is replete with the walls that man has made.
There are both physical and symbolic walls, designed to keep some people in and others out, to define territory, to intimidate, to impress, to retain power.
And then, there are the other walls.
The wall of ignorance which can be the most enclosing of all walls, for only someone with tremendous imagination and faith can recognize that there is anything beyond, and only someone with formidable will can find the courage to fight his or her way over it.
There is the wall of intolerance, which is ignorance by choice. Those who choose to live behind this wall will never comprehend the true meaning of life. There are no new ideas to stretch the brain, no new discoveries to stimulate the taste, no variety to add dimension to the circle of friends. Behind this wall, we grow rigid and as gray as the wall itself.
There are the prickly heights of the wall of pride, which stands in the way of connection. This is a defensive wall, designed to keep those who would know us or help us. or pity us, apart.
There is the wall of vanity which demands that time stand still. Behind this wall, we live without grace,so determined to refuse the reality of aging, we become caricatures of ourselves.
There are many walls built from fear, each one different and yet all the same. Fear of failure, which keeps us from trying.
Fear of being hurt, which keeps us from loving.
Fear of being obligated, which makes it impossible to trust.
Fear of criticism, a barrier to achievement.
Fear of offending, which makes us hypocrites.
There is the wall of loneliness, a wall we build ourselves, when we wait for someone else to make the first move, to speak the first word. Behind this wall, we cannot make new friends or mend old quarrels.
The bleakest wall of all is constructed of bitterness for it warps the soul. Every time we dwell on the past and blame others for our failures and disappointments we add another brick.
There is the wall of unhappiness which grows thick and forbidding when we let unhappiness become a habit, when we refuse to recognize that we are responsible for the quality of our own lives.
There is the wall of ingratitude. Wiithin this territory we do not recognize contentment, love, or friendship, for we are always seeking more.
There is the wall of vengeance which is an invitation to disaster, for which of us is pure enough to judge, is close enough to God to usurp his role?
And then, there is the one wall that matters, the wall we build to protect our vulnerability to shut out the cynics and the pessimists and the destroyers. Behind this wall, we can live a loving, peaceful, happy and fulfilling live.
That wall, no President can build for us.

happiness, living, loving, President, Uncategorized, walls,

January 19, 2017

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What I Love

A former Sun reader asked me if I could find a column – I think this is the one the reader wanted.

 

I love

The pink  of the dawn

The birds’ morning song

The scent of drew on the grass

Freshly ground coffee

The touch of your skin

And you

In the morning.

I love

The amber light that filters

Though a blind darkened room

The hum of traffic far below

The distinctive smell of city heat

Your hand at the back of my neck

And you

In the afternoon.

I love

The sound of a big band

Hips moving

Bodies in rhythm

Perfume

The taste of white wine

And you

In the evening.

I love

The words of a poem

Spoken aloud

The warmth of a bed

The refuge of sleep

And you

In the night.

 

 

 

 

 

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November 19, 2016

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Alzheimer’s: Old Folks talking

I don’t have any desire to be young again. Like most older people, I think the world I  experienced was the best one.  I have no desire to twitter and tweet, have a phone hanging, like  an umbilical cord from  my ear or walk around town wearing a close copy of  long underwear.

But I do envy one aspect of being young:  It is the only time in your life when you are confident that you know everything.

And I remember when I was young, when I knew everything.

Way back then, when I saw an old couple in a restaurant, sitting throughout a meal without apparently offering a word to each other, I used to think, “How awful”, and I would vow to myself that I would never be a partner in a marriage like that, two people with nothing to say to each other. How terrible.

How little I knew.

Now, many of those who knew about my husband’s Alzheimer’s (AD) ask me, “Did you have any conversation at all with him?” Well, that depends on how you define conversation.

Not like the ones we used to have which began at breakfast with the arrival of three newspapers and started with a discussion of Washington, Ottawa, New York and Toronto politics.  My husband set an intellectual pace, with his knowledge of politics and economics and the breakfast talk would be one in which I was challenged to think and re-think.  Then, typically we would part ways and not see each other again until late in the day when we would tell each other about our day, discuss what we had heard, learned, touch on family and finances, and if we were going out to dinner, where and with whom and — if I had initiated the guest list — why! and, if we were staying home,  what we were going to eat. The latter could take quite a long time.  And so it would go, from breakfast until the lights went out and the last words would be, “Good night, I love you.”

I miss all that, beyond mere words.  And I have found that words are just that: mere.

Days  would go by when my husband did not say a word, let alone comment on the world outside our doors. But that did not mean that we didn’t communicate.   We did. There is a kind of silent communication that is as powerful as any that depends on speech.  He could tell me with his eyes that he appreciated what I did for him.  He could tell me with a smile that he was pleased to be with me.  Without a word, he let me know that he was not happy that I was going out, leaving him behind.

When it was a really good day, if I asked him if he loved me, he would reply “Yes”, and when I ask why, he might answer, as he used to do, “Damned if I know”.  And, sometimes, if I was very lucky,  if I told him, ” I love you”, he would  say, ” I love you too”.

Does anyone really need any more than that?

i have learned to look at that old couple in the restaurant and  see them in a very different way.  Perhaps they don’t have anything to say to each other anymore.  When you have lived a long time, the world around you does tend to repeat itself. Everything that could be said has been said. More than once.  There truly isn’t very much new under the sun.  So, the general had an affair.  Remember, so did Ike!  Or so it was said.

But it is also very possible that they have moved beyond words.  That what pulses between them is so strong, so deeply rooted, so much a matter of fact, that it just is.

That when you look at them, you might indeed be seeing what it looks like to be an old married couple.  And realize that is not something to pity but a state perhaps to even envy, later, when, with age,  you find that you don’t know much,let alone everything.

This essay is an excerpt from The Alzheimer’s Diary, one woman’s journey from caregiver to widow – available at your favorite online bookstore.  All proceeds front he sale of this book benefit Alzheimer’s drug research. 

 

 

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February 15, 2016

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A Walk With Grief

Source: A Walk With Grief

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January 6, 2016

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