E Mails To My Grandchildren

Gone are the days of grandchildren growing up next door to or down the street from their grandparents. The opportunity for these youngsters to learn from their elders has diminished. But author David Nagle found a way to mentor his grandchildren and be a practical source of wisdom. He sent them e-mails. In E-mails to My Grandchildren, Nagle shares a collection of these e-mails that served to inform his grandchildren, giving them a sense of their roots. Offering a sophisticated spectrum of mentoring advice, the e-mails contain an entertaining mix of personal stories of growing up in another age, grandfatherly advice about living fully, and information about how to stay healthy. Meant to be savored and read again and again, E-mails to My Grandchildren challenges Nagles grandchildren to learn new things and to learn new ways of thinking about old things. This sampler of warm, biographical stories is both timely and timeless.

Life is a journey that has many wonderful stops along the way. Some days are life changing, and may lead to incredible joy. The author was able to have such a day early in his life. The result of that day has led him to believe that he has been the luckiest person in the world. There have been many changes in the world during the life of the author. This book outlines for his grandchildren, how his world has changed and how he has seen the world change. Hopefully, they will experience a multitude of positive changes as well.

“A work of inspiration and pragmatism” offering heartening advice on navigating the later years of life for aging individuals and their families (Gary J. Kennedy, M.D., Professor and Director of Geriatric Psychiatry, Montefiore Medical Center, Albert Einstein College of Medicine). For anyone who is approaching a 65th birthday with trepidation, Dr. Eric Pfeiffer, who for thirty years has cared for—and learned from—elderly people, addresses with compassion and deep understanding the multitude of issues that arise. He writes authoritatively but in a conversational tone. His advice is easy to read, easy to follow, and full of wisdom. In short, practical chapters, Dr. Pfeiffer advises on choosing an ideal place to live, finding a range of satisfying activities, and maintaining an active social life. He also explains how best to maintain one’s health, mental health, wealth, and independence. Other chapters explore the importance of a spiritual life and the value of maintaining an active sexual life. In addition, the author speaks to the value of charitable giving and describes how it is possible to prepare for a good good-bye to life. Filled with illustrative anecdotes and enhanced with a lovely selection of poems, this reassuring book demonstrates how it is possible to direct and control the aging experience. For every person approaching retirement years, and for their friends and families, the book is an excellent resource and a practical guide. “A highly readable, thoughtful book that contains many important facts and much wisdom.”—Myron Weiner, M.D., University of Texas Southwestern Medical School “A valuable addition to the existing literature, and I would recommend it to friends, patients, and their families.”—Richard Marottoli, M.D., Dorothy Adler Geriatric Assessment Center at Yale-New Haven Hospital

Society’s interest in the preservation of persistent social problems; That society or cultures often have an unspoken, often unrecognized interest and some sort of gratification from the continued existence of most persistent and loudly decried social and economic even political problems. Since this appears to be the case, one way of attempting to solve such problems is to attempt to articulate or otherwise indicate which specific interests and needs are being served as a result of society’s ongoing inability to formulate or agree upon any specific course of legislation, policy making, or even some sort of specific discourse whose utilization might lay the groundwork for some sort of improvement. Consider the possibility that humanity might, while engaging in ever more efficient and less expensive modes of computerization and automation, effectively destroy real human economic activity. The possibility exists that as human “work” comes to be defined as ever less efficient and necessary for the production of goods and services, that real people will begin to be paid less and less. Eventually, however, humanity’s ability to purchase these ever more mechanized goods and services will begin to be seriously depleted. So that a point could theoretically arrive when a vast plethora of goods and services would be available for sale, however, the numbers of available purchasers would be constantly diminishing to the point where civility would begin to disappear, theft would become rampant. The scene would not be pretty.

"Twenty-year-olds dread thirty; forty-year-olds fear fifty; sixty-year-olds worry about seventy, and so it goes. There is something to worry about, though it isn't what you'd expect: research shows that having a bad attitude toward aging when we're young is associated with poorer health when we're older. These worries tend to peak in midlife; but in Lighter as We Go, Mindy Greenstein and Jimmie Holland show us that, contrary to common widsom, our sense of well-being actually increases with our age--often even in the presence of illness or disability. Greenstein and Holland--on a joint venture between an eighty-five-year-old and a fifty-year-old--draw from their own intergenerational friendships, as well as a broad array of research from many different areas, to unveil how and why, over the course of a lifetime, we learn who we are as we go."--Back cover

Most of the articles in the text have never been published. Some were published in local newspapers and state publications. All are original and written over a span of several years. Some involved a great deal of research and reminiscing.

The only guide you’ll ever need to manage the care of your aging family FULLY REVISED AND UPDATED As our population shifts and ages, the care needs for our elders continue to change and evolve. Today’s generation of family and professional caregivers faces new decisions and challenges, as well as previously unavailable options. This thoroughly revised and updated 2009 edition of The Complete Eldercare Planner equips you with reliable, up-to-the-minute information to help you plan and manage caring for your loved ones. Comprehensive and detailed, sensitive and realistic, practical and accessible, the 2009 edition provides even more tips on prioritizing and organizing caregiving tasks, balancing work and family responsibilities, and navigating the complex maze of eldercare services. In addition to an expanded index of Internet resources and access to downloadable forms of key documents, you’ll find indispensable checklists, worksheets, step-by-step action plans, lists of questions to ask, low-cost and free alternative resources, and The Document Locator™. This new edition covers: •Getting started on creating a long-term care plan •Finding help, especially if you live far away •Managing the financial aspects •Talking to elders about sensitive subjects •Senior housing–move or stay put? •Managing medications •And many other topics of vital interest to anyone caring for an elder