- Terry BallantyneA Few Words About Assisted LivingNovember 18, 2017This is my personal experience, but one that I hear from others is sadly all too common. Choose assisted living, particularly memory care, very carefully. If your parent is healthy and thriving and just needs help with housework or managing medications, assisted living may be appropriate. ADLs (activities of daily living , and IADLs, Instrumental acitivites of daily living , are the skills needed to live independently -- dressing, shopping, cooking, doing laundry, managing a phone. When wrists are bad, or knees are weak, these simple tasks...
- Terry BallantynePlanning AheadMay 1, 2017PLANNING AHEAD Looking ahead to our “golden years” is nobody’s idea of a great conversation starter. If you are under 40 you may be inclined to stop reading here, but DON”T. Likely you have parents, aunts, older cousins and they need your wisdom about thinking ahead, and as surely as the sun rises in the east, you are aging. (Shocking, I know.) I am finally hearing conversations at open houses about folks who are spry and active in their mid-60s saying “I Know,” with...
- Terry BallantyneThe ButteryJune 8, 2015I took my Mom out for lunch today. I watched her marvel at the hub bub and pace at The Buttery and I can’t help but reflect on the world now and the world she grew up in. She once rode 2 miles to town on a cardboard box, like a skim board being pulled by two draft horses on a set of reins. She was a daredevil. And here she sat, almost terrified at the pace, but fascinated at the women with tats, the...
- Terry BallantyneMind Your EldersApril 20, 2015I’m getting some pushback about the term Olderhood. “Why not Elderhood” “Why or Seniorhood” I am asked. “I don’t want to be old.” they tell me. I called it Olderhood because everyone is older than someone. First graders hold sway over kindergarden kids. High school kids disdain the junior high group. Seniors are the elders to the Freshman class. As we move through life we are getting older, and this column is not directed solely at the 80+ crowd. There are things of interest hopefully...
- Terry Ballantyne
- Terry Ballantyne