Aging with Care | People Who Need People – By Marla Beck, Columnist for the Madison Park Times
Close relationships give us energy, both physically and emotionally. So what happens when we lose these loving relationships?
In my work with the elderly, I know one of the hardest issues faced is the loss of a spouse or a close, long-term friend.
We can lose a person we know through dementia and Alzheimer’s. Then, there’s the unsettling permanence when people pass away.
In the aging, a sensation of loss can also result from the evolution of societal values taking place; this creates a feeling of displacement.
How does one survive these losses? I don’t have the answers; I can only muse and learn from the examples of others.
A friend in her mid-70s shared her story with me. She went to a Seattle high school where nine classmates developed close friendships with one another; she is one of those. These women were and are a vibrant group.
