Aging and Dying Your Way

Submitted by Anne Newins

Volunteers set up a display table every month in the RVM library. We select topics that we think will appeal to our residents’ wide range of interests. Lately, there have been activities in the Manor that have spurred a strong response to issues about aging and long-term planning. These have included the popular presentation by Beth Knorr, a Foundation Board member and well-regarded estate planner.

In turn, a follow up class is being facilitated by Linda Bellinson, LCSW, and Debi Watts, to help residents address topics in a handout created by a Manor resident committee and provided in connection with Beth Knorr’s presentation. The class has filled up quickly, but additional ones will be offered if there is a demand. (Note: Linda Bellinson is available to meet individually with people who may be struggling with end-of-life issues. Her extension is 7157.)

Library volunteers have received several requests to provide a related display. So, the September display will include many books that may intrigue readers. All will be non-fiction.

The books cover a wide number of subjects. Below is a list of some of them, a few with brief reviews.

Practical information:

The Best Way to Say Goodbye, by Stanley Terman

Final Journeys, by Maggie Callahan

Death with Dignity:

A large binder of information compiled by Jan Rowe and Daphne Fautin that includes many resources related to the subject will be on display but may not be checked out.

Final Exit, by Derek Humphrey

Memoirs and Reflections:

Gratitude, by Oliver Sacks

I would like to put in a special plug for this short volume, which was completed weeks before Sacks’ death. Sacks aptly has been described as the “poet laureate” of medical writing, and this uplifting book contains page after page of lyrical writing. Below are a few paragraphs from “In my Life,” one of the essays included in Gratitude.

“I cannot pretend I am without fear. But my predominant feeling is one of gratitude. I have loved and been loved; I have been given much and I have given something in return; I have read and traveled and thought and written. I have had an intercourse with the world….

Above all, I have been a sentient being, a thinking animal, on this beautiful planet, and that has been an enormous privilege and adventure.”

Diseases:

Mayo Clinic Guide to Preventing and Treating Osteoporosis

Why We Sleep, by Matthew Walker

Parkinson’s Guide for Dummies

Mayo Clinic Guide to Arthritis

We hope that residents will find this display of value. 

For a list of DVDs in the RVM collection on the subject, click here.