Just My Opinion

It usually takes a few months to begin slacking off. By the end of the year, exercise and diet take a back seat to holiday gluttony.

By Sondra L. Shapiro After I delivered a eulogy for my husband’s 93-year-old grandmother, a woman I greatly admired, the rabbi approached me to say...

It was Christmas, more than 20 years ago, and my husband and I volunteered at a local nursing home to allow workers time off to be home for the holiday.

We arrived in Juneau on the second day of the cruise. Standing on deck as we pulled into port, we spotted a large American eagle perched on the ship’s gangplank. We weren’t in the “lower 48” anymore. We had arrived in a part of the country where even the best superlatives are inadequate.

We are learning that the pool of family and friends available to take care of us in old age will be less than half as deep as it is today.

I was taken aback by my less than enthusiastic reaction upon learning that former Vice President Dick Cheney had had a heart transplant.

Our 78 million demographic is worth its weight in gold — $15 trillion in global buying power by the end of this decade.

We had begun talking about retirement, and when we broached the topic of someday needing home or institutional care, we felt financially vulnerable. So we began exploring long-term care insurance options.

Barbara Streisand, old? Diane Keaton, old? Michael Douglas? Steve Martin? Jane Fonda? Maybe it’s me, but I just don’t think of these entertainers as being old. Yet, there they were — featured online on the homepage of TVGuide.com in a pictorial story titled, “Old People We Love.” As I flipped through the photos and bios, I actually had to return to the headline twice just to make sure I was perusing the right story.

As movie legend Bette Davis said, “Old age is no place for sissies.” Those of us navigating this path are all too familiar with the losses and financial and health challenges that confront us with each day.