Irving Brecher, 91-year-old wannabe-stand-up comic, is nervous. The Doctors Emeritus Society of Cedars-Sinai is at the buffet in the Harvey Morse room, a conference hall where the old practitioners gather every month to hear specialists on subjects like pain control. Sometimes a marine biologist will discuss Darwin.
During my genealogy research I was surprised to learn that my great-grandfather was a real scoundrel. While it\’s impossible to know what was happening inside of his head, I\’ve found clues that give me a better understanding of who he was.
\”At age 76, I\’m finally coming of age,\” said Arthur Oaks, who read directly from the Torah during the b\’nai mitzvah service, which is more traditional. \”I never thought I would have the opportunity. When they announced the class, I jumped at the chance.\”
As a Los Angeles Unified School District teacher of world issues for seniors in Los Angeles, I began yesterday\’s class by playing a taped interview of Michael Moore talking about his movie, \”Fahrenheit 9/11.\” I had suggested that the class go see the film, so we could discuss it.
Life isn\’t so easy for Genia Cohen. The 68-year-old widow lives in a low-income apartment in Hollywood. She finds it difficult to get together with her sister, her only living relative in the area, who\’s also suffering from the aches and pains of age.
"Why did you come? Go, go before it\’s too late," Laja Szydlowski warned her daughter, Hanna. She then whispered, "They\’re killing people here. You don\’t understand."
NORCs have cropped up around the country, with an estimated 5,000 now dotting the U.S. As the population grays — an estimated 75 million Americans will be over 55 in 2010 — the number of NORCs is expected to jump, said Andrew Kochera, senior policy advisor at AARP in Washington.
Because elder care can be an enormous drain on an individual\’s resources, with nursing homes costing in excess of $100 a day and home care costing even more, planning ahead and buying long-term-care insurance is one way of preventing the costs from being too overwhelming.
Roughly 175,000 Jewish elderly in Russia are now served by the 88 Heseds across the former Soviet Union. These centers, run by the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC), account for about one-half of all Jewish social and welfare organizations in the former Soviet Union.
Herb Citrin isn\’t your typical bar mitzvah boy. He celebrated his rite of passage at the age of 80.
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