Ageing & Growing Old

[Mythopoeika]

Dementia is very sad.
On the Probus trip I've just been on one of the ladies, a beautiful looking woman still, seems
worse each time we see her.
She still talks ok but won't recognise you a few minutes later and her husband has to keep a close eye on her.
She becomes confused easily and was trying to get through an emergency door at the airport to get to the toilet, and forgets where she was sitting at meals a minute earlier if she gets up.

A lady my Mum knows has dementia and is in a home. She seems blissfully happy, even though she can't string a sentence together. Mind gone, but physically in great shape for 93.

 

[escargot]

Has anyone else noticed how dreams and dementia are closely related? In a dream, our mother is not the one we had, our friend is suddenly three times the age they should be?

As you'll know, one theory of dreams is that they are always about ourselves.
Mothers in dreams, well, hello Dr Freud...

 

[escargot]

Dementia is very sad.
On the Probus trip I've just been on one of the ladies, a beautiful looking woman still, seems
worse each time we see her.
She still talks ok but won't recognise you a few minutes later and her husband has to keep a close eye on her.
She becomes confused easily and was trying to get through an emergency door at the airport to get to the toilet, and forgets where she was sitting at meals a minute earlier if she gets up.

My jobs used to involve looking after people who had dementia. Once you understand the condition - well, there's a range of conditions - it's easier to deal with. As you've noticed, the short-term memory is often affected first. The lady you see on the trip is lucky to have a husband who can cope.

Yesterday at work I was chatting with a customer whose mother has been diagnosed with a similar condition. He's my older kids' age so she's quite young. It's an 'early onset' type. Apparently she still drives, ooer! Must be worrying for him.

 

[ramonmercado]

Still driving:105-year-old Eileen Ash took her test in 1937

The number of over 70s holding a driving licence has exceeded five million for the first time. New figures from the DVLA show 265 of them are over 100 years old.

Eileen Ash is 105-years-old. She passed her test 81 years ago and is still confident being on the road.

She told our correspondent Matthew Price she has never been re-tested. She says: "There are good drivers and bad drivers of all ages." And "If you can't see the cars on the road, or the pedestrians on the pavement, it's time to take a test."

(Image: Eileen Ash. Credit: BBC)

Release date:
22 March 2018
Duration:
2 minutes

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p06...campaign=thetodayprogramme&ns_source=facebook

Audio at link.

 

[Peripart]

A neighbour of my parents was either - and I forget which - one of the last men to obtain a driving licence without having to pass a test, or one of the first to have taken the test, shortly after it was introduced. Whichever, it means that he started driving in about 1935. The chap in question is, perhaps not surprisingly, long since gone. On the other hand, Mrs Ash, mentioned above, is slightly older, and if she'd applied for a driving licence at age 17, she certainly wouldn't have been required to take a test, as there wasn't one.

The title of this thread is rather poignant and thought-provoking, but I guess that was Rynner's intention in starting it. With my own father dying last month, I've found myself thinking a lot more about the passage of time, and that it's more than likely that I have less life ahead of me than I do behind. Carpe diem, I guess.

 

[Iris]

I'm a bit the same Peripart. Also whenever an elderly driver here is involved in an accident there are calls to stop all older drivers having a licence.
However when it's a younger driver involved the age is not emphasized and the majority of accidents are caused by younger ones.

 

[Mythopoeika]

I'm a bit the same Peripart. Also whenever an elderly driver here is involved in an accident there are calls to stop all older drivers having a licence.
However when it's a younger driver involved the age is not emphasized and the majority of accidents are caused by younger ones.

True, that.

 

[escargot]

A neighbour of my parents was either - and I forget which - one of the last men to obtain a driving licence without having to pass a test, or one of the first to have taken the test, shortly after it was introduced. Whichever, it means that he started driving in about 1935. The chap in question is, perhaps not surprisingly, long since gone. On the other hand, Mrs Ash, mentioned above, is slightly older, and if she'd applied for a driving licence at age 17, she certainly wouldn't have been required to take a test, as there wasn't one.

The title of this thread is rather poignant and thought-provoking, but I guess that was Rynner's intention in starting it. With my own father dying last month, I've found myself thinking a lot more about the passage of time, and that it's more than likely that I have less life ahead of me than I do behind. Carpe diem, I guess.

We're sorry to hear you've lost your father. Our condolences.

 

[Peripart]

We're sorry to hear you've lost your father. Our condolences.

Thanks - it's appreciated. However, as I said, if this sad event helps me to focus and to think about what's still good in my own life, then I'll take that as a positive. Dad's end was so peaceful (being the first death I've witnessed first-hand) that it's helped me come to terms with the fact that death, though inevitable, is not necessarily something to be afraid of. I'll still avoid it for as long as possible, though!

 

[escargot]

Thanks - it's appreciated. However, as I said, if this sad event helps me to focus and to think about what's still good in my own life, then I'll take that as a positive. Dad's end was so peaceful (being the first death I've witnessed first-hand) that it's helped me come to terms with the fact that death, though inevitable, is not necessarily something to be afraid of. I'll still avoid it for as long as possible, though!

That's one of the secrets of bereavement - it makes to confront your own mortality and how you feel about it. It's part of the process of grieving; the bit, I sometimes think, that concerns whether we believe we will see our loved one again.

There's more to it than that of course but none of it's pleasant.

 

[ramonmercado]

Driving oaps mad.

A New Zealand lobby group for senior citizens has criticised a company for selling special plates for cars telling road users that the driver is elderly.

The so-called "E-plates" are being sold by Auckland-based company SafeGrannies as a weapon against road rage, the Stuff.co.nz news website reports.

"A large percentage of road rage could be removed if [drivers] were aware who was in front of them," says company founder Nick Carrol, pointing out that the signs have similar intentions to 'baby on board' signs used by parents in encouraging other drivers to slow down.

But the Grey Power lobby group for over-50s says the NZ$12 (US$9; £6) signs are "ageist". Its president Tom O'Connor says that he suspects they will do nothing for "the conduct of idiots on the roads".

"I've got no objection if someone wants to put one on their car, but I don't believe it would help in terms of safety," he says.

http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-news-from-elsewhere-43595509#

 

[ramonmercado]

This guy is in fine form.

A man has collected his third Guinness World Record on his 106th birthday by becoming the oldest person to ride a zip wire.

Jack Reynolds, from Hollingwood, near Chesterfield, scaled the 197ft-high (60m) wire on live TV to raise money for a stroke charity.

Mr Reynolds became the oldest person to ride a rollercoaster in April 2017.

On his 104th birthday he became the oldest person to get their first tattoo.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-derbyshire-43667111

Vid at link.

 

[EnolaGaia]

It's great to go out while you're on top - even if it took 7 decades just to get to the top ...

93-year-old makes first hole-in-one in 65 years of golfing
A 93-year-old Ohio man wrapped up his nearly seven decades of golfing with his first hole-in-one.

Ben Bender told The Zanesville Times Recorder “the Lord knew” this was his last round and gave him a hole-in-one.

Bender aced the 152-yard third hole last month at Green Valley Golf Course in Zanesville with a 5-wood.

He says he was in awe watching it, but then his hip started bothering him, forcing him to stop after a few more holes. He headed to the clubhouse, bringing his golfing career to a memorable end.

Bender says he began playing when he was 28, whittling his handicap down to a 3 at one point.

He says he hates giving up the game, but knows he can’t play forever.

SOURCE: https://apnews.com/5db2b7c045d1453b...akes-first-hole-in-one-in-65-years-of-golfing

 

[lordmongrove]

128 year old woman has hated her life.

https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/...living-person-has-hated-every-day-of-her-life

 

[ramonmercado]

Well death approached for the son anyway.

A 92-year-old woman has been charged with first-degree murder after she allegedly shot her son dead because he wanted her to move into a care home.

According to a statement she made to police, Anna Mae Blessing’s 72-year-old son Thomas told his mother that she was becoming “difficult to live with” and would have to move out of the apartment that he shared with his girlfriend in Fountain Hills, Arizona.

Blessing told detectives that she “had been contemplating for several days her son’s intentions to place her in an assisted living facility”, according to a statement from Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office.

http://www.theweek.co.uk/94785/woma...letter&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter

 

[ramonmercado]

Not going quietly into the night.

A Seattle man celebrated his 100th birthday by skydiving out of a plane, and says it is his new life mission to do it again next year and become the world’s oldest skydiver.

Centenarian Stu Williamson said he would love to snatch the title from Bryson William Verdun Hayes of Devon, England, who became the oldest man to perform a tandem parachute jump last year at 101 years and 38 days old, according to Guinness World Records.

“If I live another [year] and two months, I’ll bump him out of his place,” Willliamson told InsideEdition.com. “I’ll have a reason to live.”

Williamson, a resident of retirement community Horizon House, celebrated turning 100 years old with the second skydive of his life. He performed his first just last year, on his 99th birthday.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/good...-looking-forward-to-doing-it-again/ar-BBLgl3J

 

[EnolaGaia]

:badge::band::thrash:

Elderly German men escape nursing home to attend heavy metal concert
Two elderly men escaped from a nursing home in Germany to attend a heavy metal festival on Friday, police said.

Nursing home officials discovered that the men were missing and alerted police, who eventually found the men at Wacken Open Air, the world's largest heavy metal festival, held every year since 1990 in Wacken, Schleswig Holstein.

Although police found the men "disoriented and dazed," they didn't want to leave the concert.

"They obviously liked the metal festival," police spokeswoman Merle Neufeld told German broadcaster Norddeutscher Rundfunk. "The care home quickly organized return transport after police picked them up."

The men reportedly took a taxi back to the nursing home, along with a police escort.

SOURCE: https://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2018/0...-to-attend-heavy-metal-concert/4991533531723/

 

[Mungoman]

:badge::band::thrash:



SOURCE: https://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2018/0...-to-attend-heavy-metal-concert/4991533531723/

ROCK AUF JUNGS!!

 

[Vardoger]

Watch the German schlager and folk legend(in Germany and Austria) Heino at 74 years old perform with Rammstein in 2013.

This is his usual music style.

 

[Monstrosa]

Dazed and disoriented eh. Fresh out of the mosh pit more like.

 

[maximus otter]

Elderly German men escape nursing home to attend heavy metal concert

About 15 years ago I went on a tour of some of the Great War battlefields. Our guide told us several fascinating anecdotes, not just about the war, but about people whom he had guided around the sites. He told us that years previously one of his charges had been a centenarian veteran of WWI. The veteran told him that in 1916 he had been granted a rare and much-anticipated leave from the trenches. He had packed up all of his travelling kit, and had his foot on the running board of the lorry that would take him away from the horrors of the front line and back to Toc H in Popering for a bath, a proper cup of tea and a bed with clean sheets. At that moment, his sergeant ran up and told him that all leave was cancelled and that everyone had to muster for a big push. His disappointment can be imagined.

Fast forward eighty (?) years: The old chap enjoyed his day out, and was returned to his digs to rest before the next day's excursion.

That night, the proprietors of the B&B rang the tour guide in a panic: It was past midnight, and the ancient "Tommy Atkins" wasn't in his room and was nowhere to be found! All the tour company staff immediately began a search of the town, fearing the worst.

To cut a long story short, they found the ancient warrior in a local pub, drunk as a lord, standing on a table and belting out saucy Edwardian songs to the delight of the assembled punters.

As he explained the following morning, he'd been waiting eight decades for a night out in Popering!

maximus otter

 

[AlchoPwn]

A New Zealand lobby group for senior citizens has criticised a company for selling special plates for cars telling road users that the driver is elderly.

The great thing about older drivers was how many of them used to wear their hats in the car. Who needs "elderly plates" when the codger is sporting a fedora behind the wheel?

 

[escargot]

The great thing about older drivers was how many of them used to wear their hats in the car. Who needs "elderly plates" when the codger is sporting a fedora behind the wheel?

A former boyfriend of mine swore that anyone who wore a hat to drive a car was in fact a SHITE driver and should be taken off the road forthwith.

 

[hunck]

A former boyfriend of mine swore that anyone who wore a hat to drive a car was in fact a SHITE driver and should be taken off the road forthwith.

Well it's a point of view. Where did he stand on the driving gloves issue - total wankers or good idea?

 

[Mungoman]

A former boyfriend of mine swore that anyone who wore a hat to drive a car was in fact a SHITE driver and should be taken off the road forthwith.

He'd have a hard time in country Australia then...

 

[Mythopoeika]

Well it's a point of view. Where did he stand on the driving gloves issue - total wankers or good idea?

Anybody who wears driving gloves is potentially a nutter.
It means they are preparing to drive FAST.

 

[henry]

i find the string backs give you a bit of extra purchase

plus my car has no heater

 

[JamesWhitehead]

anyone who wore a hat to drive a car was in fact a SHITE driver

I don't see so many of them these days but the "cat-flaps" were always out on a Sunday, flat-cap on head, low in the seat and enjoying every long minute of the ride - even through Salford!

I'm getting to that age myself and not dawdling along yet. So it was certainly the hats!

 

[escargot]

I don't see so many of them these days but the "cat-flaps" were always out on a Sunday, flat-cap on head, low in the seat and enjoying every long minute of the ride - even through Salford!

I'm getting to that age myself and not dawdling along yet. So it was certainly the hats!

Funny you should say that. Today I was thinking about how young blokes're sporting beards and flat caps like WG Grace* or summat. They'd've looked old-fashioned in 1920!

*My GG-grandfather or summat played cricket with him. Thought I'd mention that.

 

[AlchoPwn]

A former boyfriend of mine swore that anyone who wore a hat to drive a car was in fact a SHITE driver and should be taken off the road forthwith.

Hmm... There is the problem of the damn thing falling over your eyes if you need to stop suddenly. On the other hand, I know that it isn't unknown for police and fire departments to have drivers in hats, and they are some of the best drivers. There is nothing in pursuit driving that suggests that wearing a hat is a problem, but police don't like hats as part of their uniform, as they tend to fall off. Baseball caps turned backwards are okay, offering added visor protection, or for keeping hair out of your eyes. On the other hand, every pensioner I have seen driving in a fedora has been a menace, and sloooow. I can't agree with your boyfriend, unless he was more specific about the hat being worn I am afraid escargot.
:gnome::cshock::exor:dunno::nun::rasta::sherlock::tfoil::witch::wcry::isearch::chef::cpt: