Tagged: Senior citizen

Teaching My Silver Surfers! (via Technology Information)

Senior Citizens Find That New Ulm, Minnesota, ...
Image by The U.S. National Archives via Flickr

Is this a touching thing to do? This man obviously values his elders and doesn’t consider the effort wasted. Every life is valuable.

Since I teach computers predominantly to seniors, my “Silver Surfers”, I am in a unique position to observe the challenges they face adjusting to the technology age. I have observed this with their use of cell phones, DVD players, TIVO, but predominantly with computers. In so many ways they are left behind and are running to catch up. They struggle to acquire basic computer skills. Moving and clicking a mouse while trying to assimilate what is ha … Read More

via Technology Information

 

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Stories from my past: Opportunities for kindness

The kindness of strangers
Image by Ed Yourdon via Flickr

Today I took a friend to work.  She works in a hospital and sometimes I have to wait for her because of her uncertain schedule.  While I was waiting a woman walked in who was very unsteady and using a crutch.  She fell and the only people around was me and some senior citizens who were manning the help desk.

“Lets help the lady get up.” said the two help desk staff.  However because she was a normal healthy 40-year-old woman, they didn’t have the strength to pick her up.  I walked over to see if I could help and the woman in charge said “Maybe you can help her.”

I leaned over and helped pick her up.  Her legs were very weak and she couldn’t have gotten up by herself.  I said to the woman that she needs a wheelchair and she sent the other guy off to get one.  When the wheelchair arrived she was able to navigate into it herself.

We talked and it turns out that she is attending physical therapy 3 times a week.  She said she wasn’t hurt and seemed more good-natured about it than anyone else I had seen.  She had something called lupitis. She was on the road to recovery and had a great attitude.  She thanked me and I was glad to help.

Life gives you opportunities for kindness.  Don’t miss them.

 

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I’ve outlived my usefulness

The Way We Get By
Image by Troy Holden via Flickr

This is what a senior citizen said in the film “The Way We Get By”.  You can watch it on Hulu here. I used to volunteer at a senior citizens home with my grandmother and many senior citizens said and felt this way.  I always felt it was a fault of society that didn’t value their existing skills/talents.

Can someone really be useless who is still capable of caring for others?  Is a smile, a twinkle of the eyes, or just a few words really so valueless?  It seemed a tremendous waste to me.  Here are people who have a tremendous wealth of experience and wisdom and as a society we ignore them.  No wonder we are sometimes as shallow and venerate people like reality TV shows and Paris Hilton.  How can we have any wisdom when we don’t learn from our past?

You know who the really dead people are?  The ones who have outlived their usefulness?  The ones who don’t care about others.  If people only care about themselves, they are the most useless kind of people in the world.

 

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