Takeaways from Day Two of Age Boom Academy at Columbia University:
1) 90 percent of AARP members surveyed said they want to die in their own beds. In other words, age in place. No one knows what this might mean for all the older people (and upcoming boomers) who live in suburbs now. Blocks and blocks of 70 and 80 something folks? What would that do for your neighborhood?
2) No one can truly predict what it will mean to have so many people 65 and older in our society. We are just at the beginning here. An analogy: At the very beginning of the women's movement in the1960s, no one knew where that movement was to lead. It changed our society forever.
3) If you live to 60, without dying from a heart issue or cancer, you can pretty much count on living another 25 years.
4) Books on caregiving “tank” said Columbia prof and New York Times blogger Paula Span, who wrote one. Why? No one wants to anticipate becoming a caregiver and those who finish it are done and don 't want to read anything about it. Those in the midst of caregiving are too tired and burned out to read about it.
Spokesman-Review features writer Rebecca Nappi, along with Catherine Johnston, an Olympia, Wash., writer who works in hospital administration, write about issues of grief when facing serious illness, dying, death and other forms of loss.
Ask a question: Rebecca and Catherine answer grief questions in their syndicated EndNotes column for McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. Email them at endnotescolumn@gmail.com.
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