Hello everyone,
My name is Anjolie Dobbs, and I’m excited to be a part of this class. One thing I’d like to share about myself is that I love reading, crafting, and spending time with my family. I’ve always felt a natural draw to caring for others, and I’m excited to learn how to support older adults in meaningful ways.
My experience, both personally and professionally, I’ve found that interacting with older adults brings out a greater sense of patience and compassion in me. I’ve always felt a special respect and tenderness when engaging with older individuals.
From this class, I want to learn more meaningful ways to support older adults.
When I think of terms like older adulthood or later life, they currently signify progression to me. I imagine this is the time when life slows down a bit, offering me a chance to reflect on my life, relax, and enjoy the fruits of my labor.
Personally, I believe I’ll begin to consider myself an older adult around age 70.
I hope to look and feel youthful. I hope that I am healthy. I hope to spend this time with family, traveling, and hopefully being an active grandmother. It will bring me pleasure to watch my children grow into adulthood, seeing them married, and being present for the next generation as a loving, involved grandmother.
One problem of aging that I fear is developing health issues. More specifically, dementia. The idea of losing core memories or the ability to recognize loved ones is deeply concerning for me. My memories and relationships are central to who I am, and the thought of losing that connection is something I fear.
Hello Anjolie, it is great that you have the natural draw to care for others. I do to. It is hard when I know someone needs help and I don’t have time or am told I don’t have time, that I cannot help. Related to memory loss, I had a friend who recently passed and had Alzheimers. It was great to see people around her bringing her to activities, such as choir. Her husband would sit next to her, and her paid caregiver also at other times if he could not be there. She continued to sing with us until her last month. It was amazing to see that when making music, her instinctive creativity took over. She also performed with us at Christmas. I think between the acceptance we gave, the support, and medication probably gave her a better quality of life near the end
Anjolie,
Thank you for sharing about bit about yourself and your experiences. We all appreciate it. I love your photo – it looks like they are truly having fun. Connection to family is obviously an important part of how you see your own aging. We will be talking a bit about how important that is and why it matters to build your personal village.
Your concern about cognitive decline is shared by virtually everyone in the class – and almost everyone who thinks about their own aging – but we will talk a bit about how prevalent it is and how to live with it and the fear of it. Looking forward to more conversations.
Dr P