aging parents

Geriatric Depression Scale

Despite how older adults are depicted in the popular media, depression is not a natural part of aging. As important, with proper recognition and treatment depression can be reversible. That’s the good news. The bad news is that left left…

Continue Reading


The Ceremony of the Shoes

Embedded in the living towards the end lies a narrative about love under fatal duress. It is a space that refines courage and fosters an unexpected elegance. Frannie Lindsay’s poem below is about how this elegance, born of love and…

Continue Reading


Aging Parents Dance Cards 17-20

Below are the titles and graphics for Aging Parents Dance Cards 17-20. Whether heading to their home, the hospital or the telephone, Aging Parents Dance Cards offer adult children access to good caregiving ideas when they’re needed most. Sets of…

Continue Reading


Aging Parents Dance Cards

Introducing “Aging Parents Dance Cards,” which were created for adult children of aging parents. The photos below are from the front and back side of one of the cards in the twenty-card set entitled “Reset Expectations.” Each card offers a…

Continue Reading


The Heart of Caregiver’s Resilience

Caregiver’s resilience is a mind set that guides action, an oath to meet failure and keep going, to rise above the unfairness of it all. The last stanza of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s poem “A Psalm of Life” is an anthem…

Continue Reading


The Secrets of Aging Parents

Adult children are frustrated by their aging parent’s unwillingness to share important information about their plans, health or finances. The withholding weakens the caregiving partnership and sets everyone up for poor outcomes. So why are they so secretive at the…

Continue Reading


We All Else Fails, Ride Motorcycles…

I have shared this deeply moving, three minute video with audiences throughout the United States and Canada. No matter how many times I’ve watched it, I am always inspired by the love and courage of these older adults who insisted…

Continue Reading


What We Live For…

There are many ways to dance with an aging parent who has dementia. Toni Luciani invited his 91 year old mother to join him using photography and the canvas of her aging to create art. The photographic results in the…

Continue Reading


Amazon Review

5 out of 5 stars By JOHN MORRIS CANTILLON on July 12, 2016 Format: Paperback|Verified Purchase John’s wife reviewing here- I work in an assisted living community, and this is one of the best books I’ve seen for adult children…

Continue Reading


Caregiver Vulnerability and Shame

Things Fall Apart It’s a messy game being a caregiver of aging parents. Despite heroic efforts, things can fall apart at the worse possible time. Now what? Shame Comes To Easy Listen to this inspiring TED Talk by Brené Brown.…

Continue Reading