ArcaMax

Hello Toni,

I delayed enrolling in Medicare Part B because I was working with employer benefits. Recently I turned 70 and am retiring effective Jan. 1. I have enrolled in a Medicare Supplement Plan G and Part D prescription drug plan that also begin Jan. 1.

Now my Medicare stress has started, because I have ...Read more

SAN JOSE, Calif. — For David Lincer, 67, the question of longevity once felt straightforward. He initially imagined living to 93 — close to the national ideal of 91, according to a recent survey. Now, numbers matter less to him than his physical health.

“I’m not interested in living life out in a bed just to say I made it to 100,” ...Read more

BROOKLYN, Ill. — Sr. Julia Huiskamp, all 4 feet and 10 inches of her, oversees everything at the Thomas Terry Community Center: the food pantry, the child care, the fundraising — even the transportation. Her resourcefulness has been honed over six decades as a social worker.

Huiskamp, now 90, has barely slowed from overdrive in a life spent...Read more

DALLAS -- When Troy Comardelle steps outside his apartment, one of the first things he sees is a sprawling blue-themed mural lush with flowers and wildlife.

He said it inspired him to be more adventurous with the decor in his own apartment.

“I just went with very bright primary colors and I have that very tall ceiling, … so I was able to ...Read more

Good morning, Toni:

I have been reading your Medicare column, and now I need your Medicare help. I am retiring when I turn 65 in April. I was hospitalized in November of 2025 with a triple bypass surgery. Last week I talked with the office manager at my cardiologist’s office about enrolling in Medicare and what I should do. She said for me ...Read more

PHILADELPHIA — In a small fictional town in Louisiana, the six women centered in "Steel Magnolias" have forged a community among — and an ever-deepening relationship with — each other. In a real town in southeastern Pennsylvania, a group of women who have worked together for decades are bringing those characters and those deep bonds to ...Read more

PITTSBURGH — Nurse Lacey Williams noticed Eva Lu Damianos' unique jewelry and clothing while the 90-year-old was recuperating from a broken leg this summer.

She could tell Damianos was "artsy," she said.

How artsy? She had no idea.

Damianos, a painter who has exhibited her work in galleries and at the Carnegie Museum of Art, was in the ...Read more

FORT WORTH, Texas -- Laura Williams was a planner. She planned for the butterflies she raised in her backyard in Duncanville, Texas. She planned for power outages at her home, buying a portable generator just in case. She even planned her death.

Shortly after Williams went to the hospital with stroke-like symptoms, she decided to work with a ...Read more

DALLAS -- In a Dallas retirement home, Theresa Steward is skydiving. She squeals and yelps as the ground rushes up and snow-capped mountains slide past. Her body lurches forward, and she grabs at the air to steady herself. After landing safely, she appears relieved but exhilarated.

It may seem impossible to do what she has just done. But that ...Read more

Toni:

On November 6, when the government was still shut down, I turned in my Medicare enrollment forms signed by my employer to the local Social Security office. I never received anything from Social Security about being enrolled, so I went back to the office and found out that my paperwork was lost. I refiled a copy of the forms...Read more

You’re ready to leave the hospital, but you don’t feel able to care for yourself at home yet.

Or, you’ve completed a couple of weeks in rehab. Can you handle your complicated medication regimen, along with shopping and cooking?

Perhaps you fell in the shower, and now your family wants you to arrange help with bathing and getting dressed....Read more

You’re ready to leave the hospital, but you don’t feel able to care for yourself at home yet.

Or, you’ve completed a couple of weeks in rehab. Can you handle your complicated medication regimen, along with shopping and cooking?

Perhaps you fell in the shower, and now your family wants you to arrange help with bathing and getting dressed....Read more

SANDY, Utah — Just outside Salt Lake City sits an old, two-story, brick hotel. It’s been given new life as a homeless shelter for seniors. The Medically Vulnerable People shelter — or MVP shelter, as it’s known — is for people 62 and older or for younger adults with chronic health issues.

Residents share rooms designed to be ...Read more

On stage, at the beach and in the mountains: New, enriching and sometimes life-changing experiences wait for you in the new year. Here are three play-cations, each a unique and original journey that promises not only an adventure but a way to reconnect with yourself and the world through art, camaraderie and peaceful solitude.

‘Come From Away...Read more

Year after year, Mary Bucklew strategized with a nurse practitioner about losing weight. “We tried exercise,” like walking 35 minutes a day, she recalled. “And 39,000 different diets.”

But 5 pounds would come off and then invariably reappear, said Bucklew, 75, a public transit retiree in Ocean View, Delaware. Nothing seemed to make much...Read more

Year after year, Mary Bucklew strategized with a nurse practitioner about losing weight. “We tried exercise,” like walking 35 minutes a day, she recalled. “And 39,000 different diets.”

But 5 pounds would come off and then invariably reappear, said Bucklew, 75, a public transit retiree in Ocean View, Delaware. Nothing seemed to make much...Read more

Morning, Toni:

Recently, you wrote a Medicare column about various life policies available after 65, and I have a retirement insurance question.

In June, I’m retiring when I turn 70 and my wife, Anna, will be 68. Our retirement insurance issue is that recently we applied for a long-term care plan and were both denied due to our health issues...Read more