There’s a fairly new idea in medicine known as epigenetics. Roughly, it is the idea that the environment—broadly described as everything that happens to you—can influence your genetics, leaving you more or less prone to disease or sickness.
When my cousin and her family of four small children got caught in the 2017 Hurricane Harvey in Houston, they weren’t rescued from their flooded home by official rescue personnel; they waited in the attic until a friend came with a boat to take them to safety. Sometimes, the quickest, most reliable assistance comes from our friends and community connections—especially during disasters when there are a lot of people in need of help.
Holidays were the hardest for her. At 87 years old, Elma, who lived independently in her own small apartment in San Francisco, spent most of her days alone—even Christmas day. When she was younger, Christmas was her favorite time of year, and her happiest memories were of huddling around the tree with her two boys and husband on Christmas morning, singing carols and opening gifts.
For the whole month of October, San Francisco’s City Hall will be washed in purple lights. Many people will wonder why. Our hope is that by the end of the month, everyone will know why and feel the resulting unity throughout the city and the nation.
We may not always be aware of it, but our way of relating to life is dependent on our way of relating to time. Breakfast comes before lunch and dinner, for example. If we haven’t already shopped for food in preparation, we know we’ll have to take care of that need before those meals. On a deeper level, our past experiences help to develop our personalities, and they provide a context for how we relate to people, places, and things around us—and how we relate to ourselves.
It was a dream come true for Laura when she was finally able to move out of a San Mateo nursing home back into her own apartment. Thanks to the Community Care Settings Pilot (CCSP) program through Institute on Aging, her inpatient rehabilitation after a major car accident didn’t go on longer than it needed to: She was able to return to the community where she feels at home.
One of the cruelties, or at least absurdities, of dying is that while dealing with the emotional realities of death, you still must concern yourself with the bureaucratic realities of our modern society. Nothing is free, and everything comes with paperwork. During the most challenging times in your life, when you or a loved one are considering hospice care and your options for the end of life, there are forms to fill out and money to worry about.
The day before my dad died, everyone in the family went to see him. It was a coincidence, more or less. His health had been up and down, and home hospice had been set up for him. The weather the next week was supposed to be miserable, record-breaking rain in San Francisco, so everyone wandered over to the house that day to say, “hi,” and spend some time before the storms hit.
One of the problems with aging in America is that, for various reasons, your world can become easily constricted. Streets and sidewalks aren’t designed with the needs of older adults in mind. Friends move away or pass on. Driving becomes more difficult. And for some reason, as a society, we feel that increased isolation is a normal course of events, rather than a series of choices.
Earlier this month, we celebrated Grandparents Day, which took place on Sept. 10. That date also marked the beginning of National Suicide Prevention Week. If these events seem unrelated, brace yourself for bad news.
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