Addressing Loss on Social Media
When Carla Sofka’s mother died just before Thanksgiving 2017, Sofka didn’t immediately post the news on social media. She was busy planning the funeral, making travel arrangements and getting an...
View ArticleWhy Many Doctors Botch Delivering Bad News
(This article appeared previously in Kaiser Health News.) PORTLAND, Ore. — After nearly 40 years as an internist, Dr. Ron Naito knew what the sky-high results of his blood test meant. And it wasn’t...
View ArticleA Dying Fish, A Son’s Wish
This is a story about an unlikely mix of topics: running, music, mothers, aging and a stranded blowfish. I was on an early morning run along the beach in Cape May, N.J. during a three-day getaway. It...
View ArticleIn Motion: The Next Avenue Photo Exhibit
Cristobal Trejo, a worker at the famed Churchill Downs racetrack, provides daily care for the horses he loves. Carol Challas, a breast cancer survivor, founded the Derby City Dragons, a supportive and...
View ArticleDr. Tia Powell: Working Toward Better Lives for People With Dementia
Dr. Tia Powell is a professor of psychiatry and bioethics at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York. She is the director of the Montefiore Einstein Center for Bioethics and the...
View ArticleSandy Chen Stokes: Helping Chinese Americans Navigate End-of-Life Decisions
Sandy Chen Stokes is the founder of the Chinese American Coalition for Compassionate Care (CACCC), a nonprofit based in Cupertino, Calif., dedicated to providing support and education related to...
View ArticleDr. Louise Aronson: Creating a More Positive Perception of Aging
Dr. Louise Aronson is a practicing geriatrician and professor of geriatrics at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF). Her interests include optimizing health care for older adults, medical...
View ArticleHow We Chose the 2019 Influencers in Aging
We take the process of selecting our annual Influencers in Aging very seriously because we know our list is an important one. Our goal is to name a dozen groundbreakers who, in the past year, have...
View ArticleA Good Movie Cry Is Just a Memory
As a teenager, I saw the Barbra Streisand/Robert Redford movie The Way We Were and cried. As the theater lights went up, my mother looked at my tear-streaked face and commented dryly, “You really don’t...
View ArticleCan We Talk … About Death?
Katie Couric has regrets. Even to this day. When the former TV news anchor spoke at Georgetown University at an event titled “The Healing Power of Communication” in August, 2019, she said she wished...
View ArticleHow to Be a Patient: A Comprehensive Book on Exactly That
(Editor’s note: This story is part of a series for The John A. Hartford Foundation.) Around the time Sana Goldberg began nursing school, her grandfather had a serious, undetermined health problem. “I...
View ArticleAs We Age, How Safe Is Surgery?
(Editor’s note: This story is part of a series for The John A. Hartford Foundation.) As you age, your body’s heart, kidney, lungs and other organ functions deteriorate. Under normal conditions, this is...
View ArticleAn Afternoon in a Cemetery
On an unseasonably hot day in June when the temperature was forecast to be in the 90s, I packed several bottles of water, snacks and a couple of books on death (conveniently, my shelves are full of...
View ArticleHow to Write a Compassionate Condolence Letter
When someone dies, courtesy dictates that we write our condolences. These letters can be some of the hardest thoughts we will put to paper, even for those of us who usually have a great facility for...
View ArticleLISTEN: What to Know About Buying Long-Term Care Insurance
Here are two eye-popping facts: Someone turning 65 will have a nearly 70% chance of needing long-term care in the future. And the annual cost of a private room in a nursing home (national median) is...
View ArticleFinding Meaning in Grief
In David Kessler’s latest book, Finding Meaning: The Sixth Stage of Grief (Simon and Schuster), he writes: We want to find meaning. Loss can wound and paralyze. It can hang over us for years. But...
View ArticleA Dozen Lessons From My Father’s Terminal Illness
At 74, my father found out he had stage 3 lung cancer. The prognosis was grim. That was six years ago. Last month, Dad celebrated his 80th birthday. Even though his disease is terminal, our lives have...
View ArticleCoping With Complicated Grief
“Thank you for the intervention. Friends and family came to be with me. I agreed to be admitted to hospital. Am waiting for a bed. I had a horrible breakdown. I am sorry for worrying you.” This was my...
View Article5 Things About Aging I Learned From My Favorite Books
Writers have strived to survey the landscape of old age since Shakespeare wrote King Lear. But the Bard’s iconic image of the dying and raging patriarch is hardly a contemporary portrait. Today, when...
View ArticleJane Bryant Quinn’s New Thinking on Making Your Money Last
As someone who has been writing and editing personal-finance stories for over four decades, I have a few idols in my field. At the top of the list is Jane Bryant Quinn. So, I was delighted to have the...
View Article