Last week, I was sitting quietly in the bistro of my retirement center, munching on a cheese and tomato pizza, when one of the residents breezed in, ordered a ham sandwich and swooped into the chair opposite me at my corner table.  She used to be in show business so she always leaves

In February, my mother turned 99.  We celebrated, of course.  There was cake for lunch and cake for dinner, any flavor but it had to include a lemon filling.  The nurses and doctors who care for my mother are amazed at her vitality and wit, not only taking her age into account, but

A former student wrote to say that having married in her junior year of college, she’d left to raise a family,  As she nears retirement, however, she’s decided to return to school to finish her degree.   Naturally, I applauded her decision just as I did when my mother earned he

In the September 17 issue of Atlantic Monthly, physician Zeke Emanuel explains why he hopes to die by the age of 75.  His reasoning is that by 75, he will have “made whatever contributions, important or not, I am going to make.”  He complains that our society is stretching life

During a recent lunch date with my mother, who is 98, she admitted to a growing sense of vulnerability.  Her memory was fading and she had difficulty finding the words she needed.   This loss of self, she admitted, was a cruel penalty for having a long life.  Stunned by her candor

As time grows shorter until my move to the retirement center, I become increasingly nervous.  I worry about the ongoing costs over time and how inflation will eat into my savings.  Almost everyone shares some worry about money, given our sluggish economy.  Much of my anxiety stems

In its “Spotlight” column, Vanity Fair featured two actresses of a certain age who seemed to look better over time.  Charlotte Rampling was one of them, a woman whose name has become a verb: To rample — meaning “to render a male helpless with a kind of coldly elusive sens

The face of the migrant worker is no longer solely that of the Latino or the undereducated.  It’s the face of the elderly who were caught in the tsunami of the 2008-09 Great Recession.  They are school teachers, white collar executives, or couples with  nest eggs that were demoli

I picked up my phone today on the first ring.  Bob Bidleman’s son was calling and I doubted it meant good news.  Bob was in his mid 80’s, in frail health and living in a facility in southern California. I’d last contacted him a few months earlier to give him the news that Woma

Actress Diane Keaton has a new memoir out, “Let’s Just Say It Wasn’t Pretty.” In it she goes over her now familiar history: her love affairs with Warren Beatty, Al Pacino and Woody Allen, for example.  She talks, too, about aging and about one blog writer’s comment that was