Just before Mother’s Day, I was a guest on an Al-Jazeera news segment focused on the challenges of aging in America. It was my first-ever news appearance, and, later, I proudly showed a recording to my adult daughters when they came by to visit. The segment included a look at how elders are navigating the shoals of old age, sickness, and financial insecurity—a future millions of face, and all of us deny. One segment featured a mid-life African American woman who had abandoned her retirement dreams to care for her mother, who has Alzheimer’s. As the woman fixed her mother’s wisps of hair, both daughters turned to me and said, “We are never doing that. You need to tell us what you want.”  → Read More

People call me to get answers or be sent on a path for answers and I am generally a reliable resource for them. Except for one area – one very important question – at the heart of this disease, especially for our generation of Baby Boomers. ‘Do you really want to know?’  → Read More

If you ask somebody what means the most to them in this world what would they say? More often than not the answer to this question is family, and more specifically, children. Now ask what professions mean the most in this world? Based on salary the answers most likely include things like doctor, lawyer, athlete or actor? Not on the list are early childhood educators or caregivers. Sometimes it seems like this field isn’t even seen as a profession.  → Read More