The Eugene facility is a comforting, home-like environment

Willamalane’s Michael Wargo dismisses past stereotypes

The numbers are startling: 5.7 million Americans are living with Alzheimer’s disease.

Love your pets — no matter what. And when they get old, slow down and have problems, be sure you know what they need.

Phyllis Yes has taken the real-life challenge of caring for her aging parents and turned it into a screenplay that examines the issues facing adult children as caregivers.

Nobody knows in advance which of us seniors will end up being homebound. It could be those we least expect. The needs of our shut-ins often get marginalized. That may be because our lawmakers seek votes with the “well” elderly in senior centers but have virtually no personal contact with the homebound seniors.

Think of some of your best memories. How does it make you feel to remember them? How does it feel when you get to share them? Everyone has a story – probably many more than just one. Yet, a person can go through life and never really feel understood or listened to, even among their family and closest friends.

Tenderly holding hands and with a sparkle in their eyes, Bernie Charlebois and Marie Shaw can’t stop smiling. They are like two young lovebirds basking in their good fortune.

Chronologically, John H. Williamson is 76 years old. But not only does he not act like it, he doesn’t feel it. Williamson, better known as Old Man Dancing, even has his moniker stitched colorfully on his cap.

“Get off your lazy behind and do it.” That’s Eugene Boyce’s advice for anyone not actively managing their diabetes. Boyce, 70, used to be among their ranks. A former truck driver, Boyce knew for years that his blood sugars were high but didn’t want to think about taking insulin.

When John Horne greeted his bride at the altar to exchange wedding vows 59 years ago, neither he nor his beloved Joan knew with any certainty whether theirs would be a “happily ever after” romance.

We all know we’re getting older, don’t we? After all, it’s hard not to wake up in the morning and realize you’re a day older. The physical changes become more obvious, and there are mental changes as well — it can be depressing. Eugene’s Emily Rice, 62, and Nancy Sawtelle, 60, have been helping women navigate these changes through a series of “conscious aging” workshops, which focus on the mental and spiritual aspects of the aging process.

Archer Captioning fills a special niche in providing services for individuals who are deaf or hard-of -hearing.

This spring, teaching artists from Kaiser Permanente’s Educational Theatre Program (ETP) embarked on an entirely new type of project.

Duane Goodma claims the secret to making it to the century mark is just to “keep breathing in and out.” Goodma, a mere 93, promises to do just that to catch up with his friend, Bertha Erby, who turns 100 on April 14.

Meals on Wheels People will deliver more than 1,000 hot turkey dinners to homebound seniors on Thanksgiving Day. The organization will also host community Thanksgiving Dinners at several locations in the Portland metro area.

Author Jan Fowler is looking for stories of how couples met. Couples must have met after age 50 and be in a committed relationship, but do not need to be married.

Geriatric nurse Joanne Rader’s passion and devotion for people with dementia and their families has led to policy changes on the national level that bring comfort to the afflicted. “Forty plus years ago, we knew nothing about dementia and the cause … we still don’t,” she says. “How care-(givers) dealt with dementia was to literally tie them up in their beds, in wheelchairs, in homes and in hospitals.”

When Lyle Guenther asked Nancy Thomas to marry him it took her quite a while to give an answer. After all, they both were in their 80s and had spent a lifetime in previous marriages. “I had been married for 58 years and he had been married for 52,” Nancy says, acknowledging the level of adjustment each would face. “So between the two of us we had 110 years of marriage.”