Celebrate their legacy by walking in their shoes

I‘ve become acutely aware in recent years of how people walk.

As I watch some elders’ different ways of walking, I wonder about what impacts their gait. I know some people’s stories, so I have a good idea of what prompts them to walk as they do.

On Saturday, I participated in a Memory Walk in honor of a friend with Alzheimer’s. He lives at home with his wife. His walking gait still seems strong, even though his memory is increasingly unreliable. Her walking pace, however, seems slower than it was a year ago. I am sure being on call 24/7 to assist her husband has depleted a good deal of her normal energy.

My wife and I also walked in honor of my Uncle Bob. He lives in a memory care unit at a Spokane assisted-living facility. Ironically, he has been a longtime walker.

But his disease process is slowing him down. His balance isn’t what it used to be. He doesn’t walk by himself anymore because his fuzzy memory makes it more difficult to know where he is at any given moment. But he still wants to walk.

On Saturday, we took a three-mile stroll through Farragut State Park for him. Other members of my Elder Advocates team also walked to honor family and friends with dementia. I know hundreds of Inland Northwest walkers share the Memory Walk path with their own family members and friends whose lives are turned upside down because of dementia.

My memory is crowded with images of elders I’ve known whose vibrant lives have slowed from a fast walk to a shuffle. Many of us tend to pity the shufflers, to “feel sorry” for persons whose best walking days are behind them. This is one of those images I’ve tried to address through humor.

I was 41 when I created “the world’s oldest choir director” at a summer worship workshop. The character was my version of the slow, shuffling old orchestra conductor character made famous by Tim Conway.

This has never been done to put down elders, but rather to honor their tenacity and dignity through humor. I’ve hoped that the laughter from audiences lets them deal with their own aging fears in healthy ways.

Originally, I used makeup to age my face. I don’t need makeup any longer. The older I get, the more my slow-motion routine is not just an act.

Recently, I was delighted to read more about the shuffle from Dr. Bill Thomas, a geriatrician (doctor for geezers). In his stimulating book, “What are Old People For: How Elders Will Save the World,” Dr. Thomas describes this walking pattern in a way that should increase our admiration for shuffling elders.

“The reality is that older people execute a highly evolved, richly detailed strategy that maintains upright ambulation into the last decades of life … Keeping a human body upright and moving is a spectacular feat of coordination and reaction under any circumstances.

Doing so in the ninth decade of life magnifies rather than diminishes the beauty of this achievement.”

The next time you see an elder shuffle along, or the next time you shuffle for yourself, recognize the dignity in that walk, and be thankful.