More Baby Boomers Facing Old Age Alone

[CTyankee]

23. That's a fine idea, but lacking in reality, IMO. Hippies were young, strong and able.

Even tho we can consider ourselves aging healthily, age does take its toll. Knees, shoulders and spines deteriorate simply as a matter of wear and tear. You can't easily take the hippie model that we have in our heads and apply that to elderly people, despite good intentions.

It takes a real village to do lots of things. We need the cooperation of the younger generation to help care for the elderly.

Right now, my husband and I are constantly modifying our 2 story colonial house. It won't be long before I am going to give up struggling up and down 2 flights of stairs from the basement to the bedroom with baskets of laundry. We have already rehabbed staircases and the bathrooms. He is able to get around with a walker on each floor and a cane that he takes out with him. We have given up lawn mowing and snow shoveling. It gets to the point where these outsourced services outstrip your ability to pay for them (and afford your Medicare supplement policies and meds).

We are not ready for assisted living but are ready for senior housing or at least a high rise one level apartment. The idea of running off to a commune is laughably unrealistic, IMO...