Cable Car Caroling Brings the Holiday Spirit to One and All
Carolers young and old will gather Saturday, December 1st for one of Institute on Aging’s most beloved events, the 34th Annual Cable Car Caroling.
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Carolers young and old will gather Saturday, December 1st for one of Institute on Aging’s most beloved events, the 34th Annual Cable Car Caroling.
Think about San Francisco, and what do you imagine? If you live here, you probably think of the street you live on, your favorite neighborhoods, the traffic, or the buildings. That’s normal; we live in the human environment. But we also live in the natural environment, even if it doesn’t always seem that way.
Camilla and Susan were best friends for more than 40 years, ever since their kids were in school together. Both widowed in the last decade, they grew even closer to each other. Camilla even moved into Susan’s apartment building in the Mission Terrace area of San Francisco so they could spend every day together.
When you moved out of the family home and set off on your own, your mother likely went through a mix of worry and excitement for you. Your challenges were new, and you were bound to make some mistakes on your way to figuring out adulthood. Now that she’s living alone and facing the challenges of later life, you’re likely going through your own worries, especially if you’re unable to act as a regular caregiver to support her independence.
San Francisco is a town of endless reinvention, from a muddy piratical outpost to a Gold Rush boomtown to a shipping epicenter to a wrecked and burnt-out husk to a phoenix reborn. It’s been a counterculture haven and the beating heart of a new tech and capitalist revolution.
The expansion of our senior population in the coming decades means new challenges for supporting each individual with their needs and their personal goals in later life. It also means new opportunities as these aging adults look for fitting ways to stay involved and serve their local San Francisco Bay Area communities. With a wealth of life experience and an investment in aging healthfully and vibrantly, seniors themselves may be an invaluable support system to help meet some of the challenges of the growing senior demographic.
Being a caregiver means balancing a lot of emotions and contradictions. When taking care of an older loved one, especially someone who has significant functional limitations, one of the most pressing issues is a contradiction of time.
It’s summer in San Francisco. And while it isn’t quite as warm here as it is in other areas, it still means getting outside, taking in the air, getting down to the water, and spending time exploring the neighborhoods and the artistic and cultural energy that makes this city great.
Glen describes his stress as “a feeling that someone is gripping the back of my neck tightly. And I’m so tense that I can’t even turn around to see who it is—if I wanted to.” He feels the stress of healthcare expenses, family drama, and even death as he’s dealing with more unfamiliar health challenges than ever before. Maureen, on the other hand, says that when she’s stressed, “I just power through it, focusing only on what needs to get done. But then I crash, and sometimes it takes me days to recover in bed.” She feels the weight of continuing to host a book club in her home each week even after she took a bad fall and has had to use a walker, as well as her husband’s worsening dementia.
Too often when we talk about the disabled population, we focus on what they can’t do. But much more important is what they can do, and that list of possibilities grows all the time as new technologies reverse impossibilities and courageous people blaze new trails. But for those people with disabilities who are not connected to the many opportunities or who lack the confidence to dive in, life can be isolating and limiting.
Institute on Aging (IOA) CONNECT is your direct line to us and the starting point for help with your concerns about the needs of older adults and adults with disabilities. IOA CONNECT links you with our services, as well as community services available. Reach out to connect with us.
Phone: (415) 750 – 4111 | Fax: (415) 750 – 5338
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