Mildred knew the time was near when she should not live alone. She had lately locked herself out of the house more than once. That was a predicament! She frequently misplaced the credit card bill and had to pay a late fee. Not wanting to cook, she often ate a bowl of cereal and called […]
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The decision to leave home and move into any kind of adult-care community is a heavy decision. People considering it ask endless questions about accommodations, costs, medical care, social and educational opportunities, staff, policies, food. When we think we have all the practical answers, we still wonder: What if I am unhappy there? Can I […]
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I never expected to be where I am right now. I do, however, remember noticing that sometimes old age advances in sudden events. A woman is 91 and well and active; she falls and breaks a hip, and it is the beginning of the end. Because she can’t walk, she loses respiratory health and […]
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One thing some of us have more of because of the COVID-19 pandemic is time to think. And the daily news provides us with ample substance for thought. Thus I have been thinking about many scattered topics. Some of them relate to things I said to myself (and confessed in my book) […]
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Two or three days ago I got a note from someone who had just finished reading Helping Yourself Grow Old. She wrote: “What you said about dealing with old age, works too in dealing with a pandemic.” Really? I guess I hadn’t thought of that. But it’s reasonable, because old age is definitely a pandemic. […]
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Two weeks ago everything was coming up roses for me and my new book. Though the existence of a new virus for which the world was ill-prepared had shown its ugly face in Seattle, I was getting on an airplane headed for the far side of the country, excited about every author’s dream—a book tour. […]
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People who have read Helping Yourself Grow Old are already asking if I am working on a sequel. The answer is that I can’t even think about another book, because I am too busy trying to make this one fly. But the other day I posted on facebook, feeling a little bold and saying so, […]
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If you are a praying person: Remember Yemen. Recent reports from several news sources tell us that in Yemen, the poorest nation in the Arab world, one of the poorest in the world, seven million civilians are threatened by a developing famine. In addition there is a cholera epidemic that has already infected 300,000 people, […]
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At the publishing house I directed for 24 years in Lebanon our chief translator and editor had unusual editorial skills. As a translator he never wrote a word until he was sure he understood the intention of the English author, and in the end the work seemed to have originated in Arabic. The classical […]
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Grace Kusta writes a personal traumatic experience, enabling us to see both the stress of life in Lebanon during the civil war and how she coped with it. It was the summer of 1985, I had scheduled my annual vacation from work, planning to go spend a week in Cyprus, an island that is […]
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