Many of us have or are helping our children's grandparents schedule their COVID-19 shots. While we're at it, don't forget to check in to make sure Pop-Pop and Grams are up to date on other vaccines that help keep older adults healthy through their golden years. As we age, our immune systems weaken. Some vaccines received in childhood also lose efficacy. These leave a person, especially one with other health conditions, less able to fend off infections as well as when they were younger and stronger. Bottom line: Seniors and even those of us parents over age 50 are more venerable to … [Read more...]
Ghost Stories of Christmas? The Haunting Death of My Mother
If “Born in the USA” has taught us anything, it’s that people will cheerfully blare any song with a catchy beat regardless of the incongruously depressing lyrics. These days every store you walk into is legally required to play Andy Williams’ “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year” at least once an hour. Tucked into that ditty about holiday cheer is this little chestnut: There’ll be scary ghost stories and tales of the glories Of Christmases long, long ago Wait – what? Scary ghost stories? At Christmas? On the surface it seems like a lyric a few months past its Halloween … [Read more...]
Dove Men+Care Helps City Dads Celebrate Grandparents’ Day
Disclosure: We are proud to partner with Dove Men+Care in its #ThereToCare campaign. City Dads Group members around the nation marked Grandparents' Day Sunday with a lot of love and a little help from our organization's frequent partner, Dove Men+Care. The grooming products company generously sent a few dozen of our fathers framed photos of the dads, their kids, and one of their grandfathers along with a shaving kit filled with Dove Men+Care goodies for the father who helped conceive these last two generations. Our fathers used #ThereToCare across multiple social media platforms to talk … [Read more...]
Grandparents: The Acoustic Version of Parents
Grandparents Day, always the first Sunday following Labor Day, was especially poignant for our family this year. My mother is in the late stages of Alzheimer’s, and our visits to the nursing home are increasingly difficult as she struggles to remember her children and grandchildren. Her anguish recently came to mind while my daughters and I were, of all things, ziplining through a forest. On many landings a simple warning sign reads: “Always stay attached.” The sign features a figure falling through the air, his harness belt waving aimlessly like a severed umbilical … [Read more...]
Lessons from Grandpa and His Wondrous Basement
Editor's note: This Sunday, Sept. 13, is national Grandparents Day.
The sounds that came from the basement were mesmerizing. The constant whirr and buzz of saws like a swarm of angry bees, the hammering of metal on wood upon unseen projects. The smell of fresh-cut wood and developing chemicals, the traces of sawdust from shoes when they walked up the long wooden steps. The clunk, clunk, clunk of my grandfather's shoes up those creaky wooden stairs and me, straining, laying in the entryway trying to peek under the basement door just for glimpse of what was … [Read more...]