Jody Reiss was one of the youngest people to move into The Sequoias, one of roughly 50 assisted living facilities in San Francisco. She was 68 in a place where the average resident is much older and unable to live at home any longer due to health problems. That wasn’t what budged Reiss, an active ...
By Judy Goddess and Mary Hunt The Rev. Eileen Kinney never expected a time would come when she couldn’t take care of herself. But her neuropathy, a disorder that causes in numbness, tingling, muscle weakness and pain – typically in the hands and feet, began to worsen and she started having trouble cooking and cleaning. ...
I didn’t want a caregiver. My daughter and my sisters were determined to get me one. I had broken my wrist in a fall and couldn’t do anything with a sling on my arm. Everyone who stopped by my apartment to see how I was doing had to open a jar or a bottle of ...
By Judy Goddess and Mary Hunt Debbie Gulli always enjoyed older people – her grandma, her in-laws. So, when slow business forced her to close her gift shop after 12 years, she began taking classes to qualify for a nursing assistant license. She already had a degree in health sciences with a minor in gerontology ...
Debbie Aguilar’s husband, Roberto, had a major stroke that paralyzed his right side and rendered his speech almost unintelligible. It happened during the pandemic, so she was allowed in the skilled nursing home only one day for training before he was sent home. “Life turned upside down. My husband used to do everything,” she said. ...
Despite bad knees and respiratory problems that take her “forever to do things,” Jay Duchene admits, she is “not good at asking for help.” The retired nurse, now 86, has asked neighbors for an occasional ride, but trips to the doctors wait until one of her three daughters – two on the East Coast and ...
