This blog presents the ideas and creative thinking of some of Utah's talented older adult writers. Their submissions are to inform and entertain, not to present policy or opinion positions of the Utah Commission on Aging. Enjoy.
In Sept. 2022, my granddaughter, Kyra, asked me to join her in a local (Sandy, Utah) “Alzheimer’s Association Walk to End Alzheimer’s®.” World Alzheimer’s Day is Sept. 21st. One of Kyra’s fellow employees had recently lost her husband to Alzheimer’s, and the company was sponsoring a “Team” of walkers...
At the urging of my wise and humorous husband, Lee, and to deflect or distract from minor pains or hurts, our family always played “Which is Worse?” For instance, during a boy-cousins’ sleepover with grandpa, a 9-year-old grandson can be found panicking in the bathroom nursing a bloody nose and lamenting, “Grandpa, I’m hemorrhaging!” You cuddle the victim and give needed first aid. To settle things down even more, you demonstrate and initiate a round of “Which is Worse?”
The time has come to downsize and move out of our home. It’s something we should have done five years ago, but procrastination came into play, mostly due to the one-of-a kind view we have from our backyard deck. The expansive 180-degree panorama includes West Valley, the airport, downtown Salt Lake City, the state capitol, University of Utah campus, Mt. Olympus, and Big Cottonwood Canyon. All in one turn of the head.
I’ve always loved science, but I became passionately interested in brain science and brain health when my husband was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease in 2015. A lot has been learned about the brain in the past decade, and now there is something of a “brain health revolution” taking place.
As a teen, I spent hours each summer day planting weeding, picking, irrigating, or helping to can the fruits of the one-half acre garden and orchard that ran behind our house and four others on our dead-end street. For a family of nine children, the garden and orchard provided much-needed food all year long.