Foster families share support with elders at Oregon housing community

At a special housing development in Oregon, families who adopt foster children live side by side with seniors who volunteer their time in exchange for affordable rent. The NewsHour’s Cat Wise reports how members of the intergenerational community find support and connection together.

“We’re flourishing and evolving in this environment, and we’re growing big time. If you go to live in an apartment complex with a bunch of older people, for instance, people kind of wither away, and it’s really not right. Connections across the generations is critical, absolutely critical for aging well.”

Demand for housing at Bridge Meadows remains high from seniors and adoptive families. Some 8,000 children in Oregon’s foster care system are awaiting permanent placement. Construction on a new property, across town, is expected to begin next year. And Bridge Meadows staff are now consulting with several other communities around the U.S. that are planning to open similar developments in the coming years.

SOURCE: Foster families share support with elders at Oregon housing community

One of the most serious problems with senior living is isolation, particularly when one of the spouses dies. If there are no children, and that is more and more the case now, then the survivor is pretty much left to fend for herself. It is nice to see different forms of alternative living popping up around the country. Now, I admit that an intergenerational community is not for everyone. Some of us just don’t want to be around a bunch of hyper-kids in our senior years. 🙂

My wife and I did not marry until we were both over forty and she was already in a stress induced menopause so children were not an option for us. Even if that were not the case I was leery of having children as there was a distinct possibility of passing my form of deafness to them. We talked about adoption but procrastinated even on that option until it was too late for practical reasons. So, we are among those who have no family to help us in our senior years.

My wife simply loves our home of the last fourteen years and is determined it will be the last house she lives in.  I am doing what I can to help her fulfill that dream. She has had a dozen or so major surgeries over the last decade or so and her health is usually on a precarious stand.  So, I will likely be on my own sometime in the future. What will I decide to do in those circumstances? I simply don’t know right now. My options seem somewhat limited but I will not be without choices.

 

 

The Pity Party (continued)…

Following up on the “Pity Party” post of Friday, this is the first of a series of three posts that will have some reality but also some tongue-in-cheek stuff so don’t get too concerned that I am ready to bite a bullet or anything like that.  🙂

Now that Spring is here I hope I will soon be coming out of my usual winter doldrums. The six months between November and April are just not in any way, shape, or form my favorite months. They are for the most part spent locked up in the house waiting out the next cold spell and snow/ice storm.  My emotional level drains out of me during this time  and I pray that at least a little of it is still salvageable when Spring finally arrives. This winter has been much more difficult than most.

I must admit that during this season I often get depressed when I read some of the blogs I frequent related to senior living.

• Here I am cabin bound with a wife that simply loves the condition I loathe.  There is just no possibility of foregoing the winter months in favor of a warmer climate.

• Here I am with a body that continues to degrade on an almost daily basis. My knees and back have been disaster areas for several years and now my hips are going.

• Here I am facing the fact that I simply can’t do some of the simple things that I easily accomplished just a few years ago.

• Here I am not being able to taste some of the things that I used to love and am told that diabetes is probably on the horizon.

And then I read about how my fellow bloggers

• are using their frequent flyer miles to run off to this or that Caribbean island for a quick vacation.
• are jumping in the RV and go to a national park for a twenty-mile hike.

• are off to their favorite restaurant for that $100 meal.

• are having a great time in their favorite snow bird location.

So here I am having the ultimate pity party. I guess I should to be inspired by all those leading the “great life” or at least happy for them.  But their stories actually make my life seem even worse than it is. This is kind of like all the stories you see on TV where someone, against all odds survived where most perish. They are inspiring but don’t make that other 99% who didn’t have the same outcome feel any better.

Maybe I should be on the lookout for some new blogs about people who are actually getting old as they are getting old. But who wants to read on a daily basis someone who is struggling in their final years. I suspect that even if those blogs do exist they are short-lived. No one wants to read about those types of lives.  But, then again maybe they do?  That will be the topic of tomorrow’s post.

 

Seniors are a Complex Group of Individuals…

I am going to do something unusual here and do a post primarily by merging the thoughts of two posts of my fellow bloggers. I read these two blogs back to back today and could not get over how well one message meshed into the other. The first one is by Bill Birnbaum from www.adventureretirement.com entitled Senior Citizens and Technology. The second one is from Quaker friend Raye from www.quakerquaker.org entitled Time For A “Station I.D.” – When Speaking Of Personal Experience

Let’s start with the first post. As the title implies Bill was talking about how senior citizen’s deal with technology. Before I start I want to tell you that I enjoy each and every post that Bill puts out. He is on my automatic watch list. Here are some excerpts from his post:

That fellow on the airplane represents the common stereotype – that senior citizens are resistive to technology.  Seems to me though, senior citizens aren’t so much resistive to technology.  It’s simply that they insist that any new technology they might adopt serve some useful purpose.  They ask, “What can this new technology do for me?”

Bill went on with the story about how he is struggling to decide whether to move to a smartphone and also get a GPS for the car.

After I read the post I looked around my office. I am typing on a quad core desktop unit with a 22 inch flat screen display as well as a 32 inch hdtv display hooked to it. Beside that is my Samsung Moment Smartphone plugged into its charger for the night. Just to the left of that is my netbook which I have connected to yet another 20 inch flat screen. This one, when it is not being used on road tripes, is constantly running a digital slideshow of my 12,000 plus pictures (half digitized from the old film world and half taken with my Canon 12.1Mb Rebel Xsi DSLR camera that sits on the shelf behind me. Also on that shelf is my Kindle loaded with scores of books I am in the process of reading. And this is just in my study! I won’t bore you with going through the rest of the homestead. Suffice it to say that this senior is not at all resistive to technology 🙂 I embrace it just as easily as the younger generations today.

Then I read the post by Raye. Here is part of it:

Sentences that begin with “Quakers do” or “Quakers believe” or similar, and then proceed to fill in with their observations are very likely painting with too wide a brush.  Those who identify themselves as Quakers are a large and complex bunch of groups and individuals.  I understand that trying to be precise in language can be cumbersome and frustrating.  But it seems to me that going to the trouble of adding phrases such as, “in my experience,” “Quakers I have met,” “I read in an article by so-and-so,” gives more integrity to the communication.  Friends I have met who belong to certain monthly or yearly meetings don’t fit neatly together in one theological or cultural lump.

So here I sit trying to combine these two posts. Let me say that like Quakers, I believe seniors are indeed a large and complex bunch of groups and individuals. It is hard to pin us down on just about anything related to living. Some like Bill are more adventurous and some like me embrace technology as soon as it comes available. Some are like my wife who is completely happy in life with just her mystery novels (paperback versions) and her 3,000 piece puzzles spread out on her hobby room table. I know Bill will agree that sometimes we senior bloggers like our Quaker brethren paint with just too broad a brush.