Conversations Near the End Mind Map
This is the companion mind map for the article Conversations at the End…
Conversations at the End…
We wish it didn’t come to this, but it does. Someone you care about is at the end of their life. No one knows exactly when but everyone is clear about what’s happening. Now comes the hard part, the conversations…
Poetry and Adult Children
Moving through middle age is a polyphasic lightening round of commingled dilemmas. No one captures the tone and pace of this developmental tango better than Jeanne Marie Beaumont in her poem Afraid So.
Afraid So
By Jeanne Marie Beaumont
Is…
Dearest Son, Dearest Daughter…
I wrote How To Say It To Seniors for adult children of aging parents as well as professionals who work with older adults. In retrospect, that was short sighted. What I failed to appreciate was that older adults were deeply…
Poetry and Aging Parents, Part 2
We back into life review on the path to the end. Dana Gioia moving poem The Lost Garden captures the cognitive melody of recalling who and what has come to define us as well as the wisdom of “wanting nothing…
Shutting Down The Planning Conversation
“Despite good intentions, outdated assumptions about older clients may lead advisors to inadvertently send out the wrong message–and it is this poor signaling, not the eccentricities of aging, that proves to be a primary cause of communication setbacks. The…
Three Strategies for Preserving Relationships with Older Clients
It’s always an ambush.
From Steve’s perspective, the estate settlement was going well. Beneficiary papers had been filed and trust provisions initiated. While he had worked primarily with Jim over the last 11 years on financial matters, Steve always maintained…
Best Possible Day
Atul Gwande’s article “Best Possible Day” is compassionate and articulate about asking the right questions, over and over again, in a world where time is running short…
Best Possible Day…
Poetry and Aging Parents
The drama of aging parents takes courage and poetry. Mark Halliday’s moving poem about the legacy of his aging parents reminds us that every life longs for a narrative, albums that celebrate the journey and comfort the hearts of those…
The Developmental Agenda of Middle Age
The primary developmental theme of the middle years is an emerging crisis. Rather than a sudden occurrence, it is an incipient shift in complexity and tone. As such, the middle years usher in a higher state of volatility as a…