Family Matters

We’re Not Gonna Take It Anymore!

By Mary Howard on April 23, 2013

Think of senior citizens and the average person conjures up images of blue hairs in track suits, smelling of Ben Gay and talcum powder, clutching well-worn AARP cards and dining on the early bird special at 4:30 p.m. while receiving a senior discount off the tab. But if you look around you will see that the myth of the docile, gentle, unassuming septuagenarian is being exploded on all manner of social fronts. From Betty White to Barbara Hillary, today’s seniors are sassy, feisty, fit, and yes, sexy. They’re not your momma’s grandma anymore!

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Family Matters

Mirror, Mirror, on the Wall

By Mary Howard on April 16, 2013

A recent article in More Magazine (December 2012 issue) discussed how different cultures perceive a woman’s beauty as she ages. American culture tells us constantly if we are not twenty something, stick thin but with curves in the appropriate places, full lipped and perfectly coiffed, we are not beautiful. Other societies have markedly different standards. The six countries mentioned in the article were: Greece, Ghana, Malaysia, India, France, and Romania.

Family Matters

A Succession of Jerks

By Mary Howard on April 11, 2013

I have been a stranger in a strange land.

Exodus 2:22, King James Version

Age seldom arrives smoothly or quickly. It’s more often a succession of jerks.

Jean Rhys

As Legacy Gardens Business Office Director (BOD), I find I have the unique opportunity to travel to another Emeritus community to train their new BOD. I am headed to Fox River, in Appleton, Wisconsin. It’s about two hours northeast of Madison, where I am located. I am to go for two days for two successive weeks. I am excited about seeing another community up close and nervous because I want to represent my own in the best possible light.

It occurs to me as I drive that I can also look at this trip from the perspective of a resident moving into a new community. I decide to blog for the two weeks I am on the road and at Fox River and see what occurs. Little do I know….

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My Great Aunt Polly and Uncle Bill

By Kimberly Moore on April 9, 2013

Writer, Kimberly Moore and her Great Aunt and Uncle

Polly is the closest thing I will ever have to my maternal grandmother, who passed when I was only 3. Polly and my grandmother, Nellie, were sisters. I have vague memories of her, for which I am very grateful. Even though she is gone, I still feel connected to her through several “vintage” items in my home that were hers. A few decorative pieces, like hammered aluminum plates are displayed on my baker’s rack, but most importantly, there is the intricately designed lead crystal bottle she used to store her cooking oil. This same bottle now sits on my own kitchen counter, used for the same purpose. I feel close to her every time I make a meal. I’m sure she would be thrilled I still think about her, and most of all, keep a memory of her close to me in my favorite place – the kitchen!

Family Matters

Now they call me, Gigi

By Mary Howard on February 11, 2013

Age does not matter unless you are a cheese.
Billie Burke

The age of a woman doesn’t matter. The best tunes are played on the oldest fiddles.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

In the December 2012/January 2013 issue of More magazine, (their byline is “For Women of Style and Substance”) clinical psychologist and author Dr. Judith Sills “dishes” on how to stay young (and sexy!) and why she never uses the term “age appropriate.” She makes a distinction between youth and being young. According to Dr. Sills, “Youth is a life era, from birth to thirty-something. Being young is an attitude. It is something you should work on and hang onto until they carry you out of the nursing home.”

Dr. Sills so dislikes the term “age appropriate” because she believes “it limits and confines women. Whether you are 35 or 75, there are certain expectations of what your sex life should be like, what your clothes should be like, and where you should be professionally. The expectation is that the older you get, the less comfortable you’ll be on your own…the more fearful you’ll be. The expectations are all negative. The phrase “age appropriate” never envisions older people having fun.”

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