Relationships

Apparently, not everyone enjoys the happily-ever-after ending in their marriages. This week, the Pew Research Center reported that the incidence of divorce for Americans over 50 is climbing. Since the 1990’s, the divorce rate for those over 50 has doubled and for those over 65, it’s tripled. Much of this rise…

Continuing the theme of conversations with physicians about health care decision making, especially at the end of life: such advance care planning becomes all the more complex and challenging when there’s no clear person to step in to be a surrogate decision maker should something happen to you. Typically, patients…

Louise and Charles “LaLa” Evans were married for almost 60 years. Living in Mississippi, it’s clear from the thousands of photos they took over the years that theirs was a loving and sweet marriage. When Louise passed away, LaLa determined to honor his wife in a way the two had…

Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg knows all too well what it means to lose a loved one: her husband died suddenly and unexpectedly in 2015. Having been through that experience, she has become a champion for promoting leave from work to deal with family illness or crisis. And last week, Facebook…

It’s no secret that older people can become isolated and lonely, especially as connections with relatives and friends fall away and losses of loved ones occur. Without regular social interaction, grief and depression may overwhelm a lonely senior, potentially causing serious harm. Years ago, Patrick Arbore, of the Institute on…

For many seniors, the idea of moving to a facility or community where someone else sets the rules and runs your life is a nightmare. At the same time, all too many seniors these days have no friends or loved ones to count on as the activities of daily living…