Aging

While serving in the President’s Cabinet, I reside in Washington D.C. area. However, I still consider Utah my home, and we gathered there over the weekend for a wedding celebration.

Before returning to D.C., my wife and I attended church at the congregation where we have attended since our late twenties. We have attended there for more than twenty five years.

As you might imagine, in the four years we have been gone, there are lots of new people. The place was bustling with new families. However, it was a chance to greet a number of people I haven’t seen for a while, including a charming collection of people who are now in their eighties and nineties whose lives are affected, nearly every day, by the programs of HHS.

One of them is Lowell, whom I met nearly 30 years ago just after he retired as a high school music teacher. He is now 94 years old and still hauls his vibraphone (electric xylophone) around in the back of his pick-up truck so he can play for audiences at senior centers and nursing homes. He told me he always asks his audience, “anybody here older than me?” There are fewer and fewer who can answer yes. Lowell still plays the piano in church and routinely jazzes the hymns with a little spontaneous riff that makes even the most somber worshipper grin.

Another favorite of mine is Lee, a retired business man who went to the office until just a few years ago. He just turned 95. He and his wife lived in our neighborhood for more than 65 years. Once he told me he paid $6,500 for his charming little cul-de-sac home. That was another era. His wife is gone now and I sense things are hard. I said, “Lee, it’s good to see you.” He smiled and said, “Well, I can’t see who you are; my eyes are about gone.” Later, he told me he has a machine that allows him to magnify the newspaper and mail so he can see it on his television. He called it “a life saver.”

There is a wonderful couple who live right across the street from us. He was a respected high school counselor and community leader until he retired. I don’t recall her career, but in post retirement they did missionary work in Mongolia and then volunteer work for many years. They are now walking the lonely and hard path of Alzheimer’s disease. She is the heroic caregiver along with a daughter. He still smiles at me, but I know our friendship is stored in a part of his brain that is no longer accessible. He relies on others to guide his steps. What great people; what a devastating disease.

It was good to see Renee and LoVinia sitting together; they often do. Both lost their husbands many years ago. Lovenia is a stylish woman and a long time teacher, similar in age to Renee. I won’t speculate on their exact age but I will confide that Renee complained to me that the Senior Games she enters each year no longer has a tennis bracket for her, and she has to play with the younger 85 year-old’s group.

Renee said, “but I still win.”

I appreciate that we live in a nation committed to see that people who struggle with the ravages and riggers of age have the health care they need. They have spent their lives contributing and now deserve to be treated in respectful and dignified ways.

As I talked with my friends, it occurred to me that when I first got to know each of them, they were in their sixties or seventies. Twenty five years passed so quickly.

During those years, things have changed for my wife and me too. Twenty five years ago our children were toddlers. Now they are adults with children of their own. In a similar amount of time, I’ll be dealing with the difficulties of age that challenge my friends and my children’s generation will be running Medicare.

What will Medicare be like then? Can my generation count on it to be there for us?

Today I will be attending a meeting of the Medicare Trust Fund. Reading the briefing papers causes me to worry. When the meeting is over, I’ll write more of my thoughts.

Comments

Dear Secretary Leavitt
I enjoyed reading your blog. I am currently a chiropractic student, and am wondering where you you see chiropractic in seeking best practice health care, particularly in regards to Medicare.
Thank you

Posted by: Burdoc Nisson | March 25, 2008 at 10:31 PM