Senior Living

/

Health

/

ArcaMax

Stacey Wescott / Chicago Tribune/Chicago Tribune/TNS

What's it like to be 64 in the age of COVID-19?

Vaccinations are underway, but the magic number to become vaccinated is age 65.

This is the recommendation from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. An Illinois Department of Public Health spokeswoman said eligibility for the next phase, 1c, is still being decided. But right now in Illinois, people 65 and older are eligible to be ...Read more

Monica Sakala/TNS

Meet the retired nurse who could give COVID shots but couldn't get one

Martha Gallagher, a 75-year-old retired school nurse, wanted to volunteer for the Delaware Medical Reserve Corps to administer COVID-19 vaccines.

She knew Delaware might need more vaccinators and thought, “Why not do something to help get the vaccine out?” Plus, Gallagher figured, it would be a good way for her to get vaccinated, too.

When...Read more

Social Security and You: Social Security -- It's Not Rocket Science

I am constantly hearing from readers who comment on the perceived complexities of Social Security laws. They liken the program to something just shy of rocket science or brain surgery. And they marvel that I can keep up with "all the changing and complex rules and regulations."

Well, I am no rocket scientist. Nor am I a brain surgeon. Not even ...Read more

Mario Tama/Getty Images North America/TNS

Reopening of long-term care facilities is ‘an absolute necessity for our well-being’

For nearly a year, nursing homes and assisted living centers have been mostly closed to visitors. Now, it’s time for them to open back up and relieve residents of crushing isolation, according to a growing chorus of long-term care experts, caregivers, consumer groups and physicians.

They’re calling for federal health authorities to relax ...Read more

Mario Tama/Getty Images North America/TNS

Reopening of long-term care facilities is 'an absolute necessity for our well-being'

For nearly a year, nursing homes and assisted living centers have been mostly closed to visitors. Now, it’s time for them to open back up and relieve residents of crushing isolation, according to a growing chorus of long-term care experts, caregivers, consumer groups and physicians.

They’re calling for federal health authorities to relax ...Read more

Amy Davis / Baltimore Sun/The Baltimore Sun/TNS

At a senior complex, a COVID vaccine clinic imbues sense of relief amid discussions of racial gap

BALTIMORE – In the 1960s and ’70s, they called him “Dancing Harry.”

A fixture at Baltimore Bullets and then New York Knicks basketball games, Edward Marvin Cooper was a fan well-known for his moves, his costumes and the hexes he cast on whatever opponents dared set foot in the Baltimore Civic Center or Madison Square Garden.

Cooper, 77...Read more

Social Security and You: Don't Lose Sleep Over Future Cuts to Social Security

Readers are always telling me they are worried about the future of Social Security. And they say they are inclined to file for Social Security benefits before they originally planned to because they are convinced benefits will be dramatically cut as part of any upcoming Social Security reform. They plan to do this because they want to be "...Read more

Juan Figueroa/Staff Photographer/The Dallas Morning News/TNS

At 82, Old Man Steve cracks up the internet on TikTok

DALLAS – Steve Austin, who often explains what an app is to his neighbors in his senior apartment community, has gained a robust social media following by sharing goofy antics and wearing hats. As Old Man Steve on TikTok, @omsteve, the 82-year-old retired Richland Hills businessman and bachelor has 1.4 million followers and more than 26 ...Read more

Michele Scialabba/TNS

Countless homebound patients still wait for COVID vaccine despite seniors’ priority

Opening another front in the nation’s response to the pandemic, medical centers and other health organizations have begun sending doctors and nurses to apartment buildings and private homes to vaccinate homebound seniors.

Boston Medical Center, which runs the oldest in-home medical service in the country, started doing this Feb. 1. Wake ...Read more

Michele Scialabba/TNS

Countless homebound patients still wait for COVID vaccine despite seniors' priority

Opening another front in the nation’s response to the pandemic, medical centers and other health organizations have begun sending doctors and nurses to apartment buildings and private homes to vaccinate homebound seniors.

Boston Medical Center, which runs the oldest in-home medical service in the country, started doing this Feb. 1. Wake ...Read more

Social Security and You: Retirement Benefit Calculation -- the Advanced Course

There are two kinds of people in the world. Those who just want to know the time and those who want to take the clock apart to see how it works. I'm sure most of us fall into the first category. I sure do. But of course, there are always those who need to disassemble that clock, examine it and then try to put it back together.

And when it comes...Read more

Kevin Parker/TNS

Family caregivers, routinely left off vaccine lists, worry what would happen ‘if I get sick’

Robin Davidson entered the lobby of Houston Methodist Hospital, where her 89-year-old father, Joe, was being treated for a flare-up of congestive heart failure.

Before her stretched a line of people waiting to get COVID-19 vaccines. “It was agonizing to know that I couldn’t get in that line,” said Davidson, 50, who is devoted to her ...Read more

Rachel Bluth/TNS

Vaccines go mobile to keep seniors from slipping through the cracks

ANTIOCH, Calif. — A mobile “strike team” is bringing vaccines to some of Northern California’s most vulnerable residents along with a message: This is how you avoid dying from COVID-19.

So far, that message has been met with both nervous acceptance and outbursts of joy from a population that has been ravaged by the disease. One 68-year-...Read more

Kevin Parker/TNS

Family caregivers, routinely left off vaccine lists, worry what would happen 'if I get sick'

Robin Davidson entered the lobby of Houston Methodist Hospital, where her 89-year-old father, Joe, was being treated for a flare-up of congestive heart failure.

Before her stretched a line of people waiting to get COVID-19 vaccines. “It was agonizing to know that I couldn’t get in that line,” said Davidson, 50, who is devoted to her ...Read more

Rachel Bluth/TNS

Vaccines go mobile to keep seniors from slipping through the cracks

ANTIOCH, Calif. — A mobile “strike team” is bringing vaccines to some of Northern California’s most vulnerable residents along with a message: This is how you avoid dying from COVID-19.

So far, that message has been met with both nervous acceptance and outbursts of joy from a population that has been ravaged by the disease. One 68-year-...Read more

Social Security and You: Decline in Social Security Staff Equals Decline in Social Security Service

Imagine that you owned a successful business that was gaining 10,000 new customers every single day. And all the market projections said that trend would continue for many more years. Would you be hiring new staff and opening new outlets to keep up with the demand? Or would you be cutting back on employees, reducing office hours and closing ...Read more

MONICA HERNDON/The Philadelphia Inquirer/TNS

The view from her hospital window was ugly. So an artist beautified it with a mural of flowers

PHILADELPHIA – When artist Michele Tremblay was diagnosed with leukemia in February 2017, her first stay at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, where she underwent treatment, lasted 28 days. One of her friends, Christina Morin Graham, visited almost daily.

During those visits, Morin Graham noticed how dreary the view was from Tremblay’s ...Read more

Mt. Folly Farms/TNS

Travel Trending with Kathy Witt: Work from here - Choose your view on a workation getaway

Working 9 to 5 looks completely different these days, thanks to remote work. As much as some people embrace it, others are tired of looking at the same four walls. Well, what if those four walls opened to views of white sand beaches and palm trees, layers of snowcapped and forested mountains or so many acres of rolling pastureland you feel you�...Read more

Erin Hooley / Chicago Tribune/Chicago Tribune/TNS

The same day his father was buried in Mexico after dying from COVID-19, an Illinois man got his first dose of vaccine: ‘He almost made it’

Since Jesús Gómez got his first dose of COVID-19 vaccine in January, he’s thought of his father every day.

The man who taught him to be strong and hardworking died of the coronavirus and was buried in Mexico the same day Gómez received the Moderna coronavirus vaccine at a pharmacy in the Chicago suburb where he lives, Gómez said recently....Read more

Eduardo Contreras/The San Diego Union-Tribune/TNS

Golden Gloves' first Black state champ reclaims his hidden past

SAN DIEGO – Back in 1964, John Phillips became the first Black boxer in the United States to win a Golden Gloves state championship.

The retired truck driver, who turned 81 on Saturday, has a stack of faded newspaper clippings and photos at his San Diego home that attest to his pioneering Golden Gloves win. But these mementos are the only ...Read more