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Featured Property
"Royal Palms"
Enjoy senior living to the fullest in Largo
,
Florida.
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Fountain-side
apartments provide restaurant-style meals, housekeeping and extensive
activities.
Royal Palms boasts
many unique features, including a heated pool, bank and even 24-hour ice cream
parlor!
More
About "Royal Palms"
"Dear Kathy"
by Kathy Harmon
Dear Kathy,
A couple of years ago I read the story on the web about the 50-year old woman
who took her mother shopping for a car. After a couple of hours in the showroom
the mom hadn't made a decision, and the daughter, on a long lunch hour, was
becoming increasingly frustrated. Totally exasperated, she turned to her mother
and said, "Put on your big girl panties and get on with it!"
While visiting with my mother this weekend I told her this story, and she
laughed and said, "You know, that's how you need to deal with aging. I used to
be upset about the new aches and pains, the problems with my hearing and
eyesight and this stuff often put me in a foul mood. I think that's why some
old folks are so cranky. But I woke up one morning and just decided that's the
way it is going to be and I got over it. I've been a lot happier ever since."
Today when I got out of bed my back hurt and my knees ached and I could hear my
mother's voice counseling me to "Put on your big girl panties and get on with
it," and I did!
Pat in St. Louis
Dear Pat,
How often do we hear about the benefits of a positive attitude in our careers
and relationships? It is a stark reality that as we age we will be happier,
often healthier and certainly better company for others if we have a great
attitude. This doesn't mean that we don't take positive steps to eat better and
exercise our minds and bodies. How wonderful it is that your mother simply
willed herself to accept and adjust to the new phases in her life.
One of the elderly women in a residence in which I volunteer told me that she
has this view of aging: When she was two she needed a step stool to reach the
cupboards. Now that she's 90, she needs a walker, a wheelchair, hearing aids
and a magnifying glass. They are all just tools. When I see them that way they
don't seem so bothersome. God bless those who share such wisdom with us!
Kathy
Click here to submit your
own "Dear Kathy" question.
Senior Personal Ads!
by Laurence Harmon
The following are actual ads clipped from
Florida
and Arizona Newspapers.
FOXY LADY: Sexy,
fashion-conscious blue-haired beauty, 80s, slim, 5'-4 (used to be 5-6),
searching for sharp-looking, sharp-dressing companion. Matching white shoes and
belt a plus.
LONG-TERM COMMITMENT: Recent widow who has just buried fourth husband looking
for someone to round out a six-unit plot. Dizziness, fainting, shortness of
breath not a problem.
SERENITY NOW: I am into solitude, long walks, sunrises, the ocean, yoga and
meditation. If you are the silent type, let's get together, take our hearing
aids out and enjoy quiet times.
WINNING SMILE: Active grandmother with original teeth seeking a dedicated
flosser to share rare steaks, corn on the cob and caramel candy.
More
Personal Ads
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My Mother's Case of "Pleasant Dementia"
by Laurence Harmon
 My mother, Alice, had
always been strong-willed, opinionated and demanding, a fiery real-estate agent
who was a life master in bridge and a maven of musical theater. She'd told my
sister, Terry, and me never to put her in a care facility. But at 93, she had
advancing dementia and was living in L.A., 1,200 miles from my home in Colorado
and twice that distance from Terry's in
Hawaii. For years we'd put off moving her,
fearing she would yell and berate us for disobeying her wishes. I trembled when
the day finally came to transport
Alice to a home for the memory-impaired. What I
hadn't reckoned on was the radical personality change that accompanied her
dementia?a condition, I learned later, known as "pleasantly demented."
It had not been pleasant, though, when
Alice, in her late 80s, started forgetting the
conversation she'd just had or the movie she'd just watched. When my son
graduated from UC San Diego, I drove Alice there and our family had
dinner by the ocean. "Grandma," my son asked, "do you know where you are?"
"Yes," she said, pausing to think. "I'm in Italy."
By 91, Alice
needed a caregiver to make sure she didn't leave a pot on the stove and burn
down her condo. She knew who we were and insisted she could still drive, but
Terry and I were worried she might hurt herself and others. I told the
caregiver, a loving woman from El Salvador
, to remove the car keys from Alice's purse. When she found
out,
Alice
called me in a rage. "How dare you make decisions for me! I'm over 21. You have
no right to stop me from driving!" She slammed down the phone and I stood for
five minutes, taking deep breaths. Then I called her back. "Sara," she said.
"How nice to hear from you."
Full
Story
Caring for Elderly with Coronary Artery Disease
by Laurence Harmon
A new study from Duke University Medical Center
finds that patients treated solely with medications after suffering from chest
pain, heart attack or coronary artery disease are more likely to die during the
first year following their initial hospitalization.
"Patients managed medically without stenting or bypass surgery tend to be
elderly and frail, and in some sense we feel they have been overlooked," says
Matthew Roe (left), a cardiologist at Duke and the senior author of the study
appearing in the August, 2008 issue of the Journal of the
American
College of Cardiology:
Cardiovascular Intervention. "We wanted to find out what clinical factors were
funneling them into a medicine-only group and what happened to them, when
compared to patients who received stents and bypass procedures." Full
Story
What's New at Great Places?
by Kathy Harmon
Here at Great Places, we've just completed our
first web traffic audit. We found that
www.greatplacesinc.com
has grown to a robust 47,000 pages. To date we've welcomed 23,469 visitors.
Google allows us to track some very useful statistics. For example, we know
exactly how many visitors came to our site, how many clicked on each of the
advertisements, what cities they came from and how long they stayed on each
page.
A particularly delightful discovery was the length of time customers spent
viewing photos, reading ad narratives and watching videos: Average viewing
times are between 1 and 5 minutes. While that may not seem like much time in
today's fast-paced world, the average amount of time a customer spends reading a
print advertisement in a newspaper or magazine is between 2 and 20 seconds!
Read
More
Top 7 Senior Money Saving Tips
by Laurence Harmon
 The rising costs of
groceries, gas, medical care and other daily necessities are putting the squeeze
on millions of people worldwide, and seniors are one group that's being hit
hardest. With tight budgets and limited disposable income, it is difficult for
many to make ends meet.
A recent article finds that 59 percent of available senior income is being spent
on housing and health care--which doesn't include food, transportation, or other
expenses. So what can be done by older people and their families to relieve a
little of the pressure?
1. Take the senior discount: Grocery stores, restaurants, home supply stores and
many more offer discounts to older people. It's free; take advantage of it.
2. Do a summer cooling checkup: Have the air conditioner inspected, clean and/or
replace filters, make sure windows and doors are properly sealed and have the
air ducts checked for leaks.
3. Keep your blinds and curtains drawn: Blocking the sunlight can result in up
to 45% reduction of heat coming into your home. Even better, buy curtains with a
white deflecting backing.
4. Keep tabs on your bills: Routinely checking your bills for inaccuracies can
save you money.
5. Only shop on a full stomach: It's a fact that you buy less when you're full.
And, speaking of shopping, get in the habit of shopping for the food you will
need for a three-day period. It will not only help you eat better, but will make
you think more closely about what you buy.
Click Here
For More Tips.
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