When it comes to getting older, a lot of people have a lot of opinions on what to expect but how much of it is true? Below are some statements taken from the “Facts on Aging Quiz” first developed by renowned gerontologist Dr. Erdman Palmore in 1977 and revised by Dr. Linda Breytspraak and Lynn Badura of the University of Missouri-Kansas City in 2015*. Do you know which ones are true and which ones are false? I’ll publish the answers in next month’s column.
During a recent visit to the Village of Sage Grove in Kalamazoo, Administrator Paula Hager took me for a stroll through their community garden to see their newly planted Living Memorial Tree. The idea for the tree sprang from a comment Paula overheard during the funeral of a resident who had recently died. Reflecting on the person who had passed, she heard someone remark, “we should plant a tree.” That simple comment put into motion what this spring and summer became a community wide effort to create an accessible space on the Sage Grove campus to honor the residents who spent the last years of their lives at the Village.
