Archive for the ‘Morningside Village Blog’ Category
Saturday, May 8th, 2010
People have asked for help in creating Caring “Villages” for elders in their own communities. From time-to-time, using the blog, I will comment on the how-to of implementing a successful program.
Matching volunteers with elders, in terms of interests and time of day and date of the week, as we help people to age comfortably in our community, used to be a time consuming occupation indeed for the one Morningside Village Coordinator…especially as we continue to expand the project. Some of our eldest members want several volunteers to visit in the course of a week.
Here’s how we are resolving this: (more…)
Tags: aging in place, eldercare, eldercare village, elderly, organizing, seniors, Volunteers
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Sunday, April 18th, 2010
[Names changed to protect our Villagers.] This afternoon, I met Barbara, a new Morningside Village volunteer in the lobby of my apartment building, and then we walked 1½ blocks to visit Helene. On the way, I explained Helene’s need for visits, for help with organizing paperwork, and about the problems flaring up between Helene and her care-giver. The latter answered the doorbell and led us down the long hall to Helene’s bedroom, where she was resting in bed, and as soon as the volunteer saw the nearly hundred old woman, she shouted, “It’s YOU, Helene! “It’s me, Barbara!” Helene tried to place the face but couldn’t.
(more…)
Tags: aging in place, eldercare, eldercare village, elderly, seniors, Volunteers
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Sunday, March 21st, 2010
If there were a Santa, and if he had elves, they might very well look like the twinkling-eyed team of Morningside Village volunteers who, in the last two weeks, have befriended one of our elders, past her mid-nineties, one with remarkable cognitive powers, who had fallen and badly hurt her back. After visiting the hospital and finding that there were no broken bones, by ambulance, “the system” returned her to her home (of over sixty years) in Morningside Village.
(more…)
Tags: aging in place, eldercare, eldercare village, elderly, seniors, visiting doctors, Volunteers
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Monday, February 22nd, 2010
“Och, mój Boże, to cud!” are some of the words that formed on the lips of Freda, a ninety year old Polish-born Morningside Villager, on a recent Sunday afternoon as she stood in the light of Adelle’s open door, also a Polish-born nonagenarian living in Morningside Village. These two women, both residents of the area for over 50 years (names changed to provide anonymity), had known each other but, with one thing and another, including health issues, they hadn’t spoken for several years.
Both women were in touch with me as part of the network of elders whom we care for. I found that each knew of the other and so I arranged for the Sunday visit. (more…)
Tags: aging in place, eldercare, eldercare village, elderly, holocaust survivors, seniors, Volunteers
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Sunday, February 7th, 2010
This morning I awoke, so relieved. It had only been a dream: I was the only one in a large house far from civilization taking care of a 97 year old mother who lay in bed recuperating from a stroke.
I awoke not in a house a mile from a small town, but I was in (more…)
Tags: aging in place, community organizing, eldercare, eldercare village, elderly, seniors, Volunteers
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Friday, January 8th, 2010
Over the holidays, I visited with three elders who live within two blocks of each other. They probably never met and maybe never will, for two of them are frail, elderly and housebound, and the third, also quite on in years, is recuperating from surgery. But I’m imagining that there was a time 70 years ago when their paths may very well have crossed. In spirit they surely did.
(more…)
Tags: aging in place, eldercare, eldercare village, elderly, playwrite, seniors, theatre, Volunteers
Posted in Morningside Village Blog | 6 Comments »
Saturday, December 19th, 2009
How do we at Morningside Village sustain our organization? It must be on love. Unlike most of the “villages” in the aging-in-place village movement in America today, Morningside Village elders do not pay for what they receive, except very often in unexpected kindnesses. And, volunteer duties are not prescribed in a brochure where elder members can choose from a list of services: traveling escort, computer touble-shooting, snow-shoveling and more. Rather, our volunteers are more like neighbors. In fact, we are neighbors. We visit; we help with whatever we can; we talk; we listen; and we care for our elder friends.
(more…)
Tags: aging in place, community organizing, eldercare, eldercare village, elderly, geriatric depression, seniors, Volunteers
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Thursday, November 19th, 2009
Of course giving is its own reward. But, Morningside Village volunteers are finding serendipitous riches in their community outreach. In the past months our volunteers have enjoyed visiting with our octogenarian and nonagenarian neighbors: most are extraordinarily interesting, and we like to feel that our elders are cared for.
But, more and more, we are hearing about how our eldest neighbors are nurturing our volunteers. Yesterday, (more…)
Tags: aging in place, eldercare, eldercare village, elderly, geriatric depression, seniors, Volunteers
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Friday, October 23rd, 2009
“I have no one left but my daughter-in-law in California; what an angel!” she repeated for the second time with a heavy European accent…German maybe. Mrs. P. wasn’t the only wobbly nanogenarian in the neighborhood who had families that were no longer around. And she wasn’t the only one to claim she was “independent” when given a Morningside Village flyer: “no help needed!” Nonetheless, she took the flyer and agreed to tea. After a couple of very pleasant encounters on the streets, she invited me to her home where we talked and (more…)
Tags: aging in place, eldercare, eldercare village, elderly, geriatric depression, seniors, Volunteers, walkers
Posted in Morningside Village Blog | 1 Comment »
Friday, October 2nd, 2009
Take
- One group of young adults who love or loved their grandparents;
- One group of compassionate middle-agers;
- An even larger, older group who watched their parents suffer because of insufficient end-life care;
and you have a large part of our Morningside Village volunteer base.
For seasoning, add (more…)
Tags: aging in place, community organizing, eldercare, eldercare village, elderly, recipe for success, seniors, Volunteers
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