Jeremiah Mora

AARP Colorado would like you to know of Vintage & Vibrant, a day-long educational event. Join us as we explore the Latest Trends in Living Well & Aging Well.

I hope you are doing well and loving life. If you are like me, you are savoring the first few days of the Spring season. What an amazing time of year! As is usually the case, the arrival of Spring is not a smooth process along the Front Range. We were teased this week with temps in the 70’s. However, this evening, snow is back in the forecast. Such is the nature of seasonal changes. Two steps forward and one step back. This stutter-step unfolding merely serves to intensive my itch for warmer temps, blue skies, green grass, and sunshine. All in due time, right?

If you receive an unsolicited phone call or a pop-up window appears on your computer screen claiming to be with a computer tech support company, don’t engage!

Last year I was reminded once again of the importance of being known in this world. My brother died. Upon his death, I became the last one standing of my biological family. My brother was the last person who had known me my entire life. We had a common origin. We shared a common history. We knew each other from the inside out. Today, I miss “remembering when” with my brother! I long for him to fill in the blanks when I fail to remember a name or an event in our family. More than anything, I long to be known—a predominant desire for human beings that is seemingly magnified as we age.

Anniversaries are especially important when you’re a cancer survivor, which is one reason 70-year old Judye Wahlberg is so excited to participate in the tenth anniversary of Jodi’s Race for Awareness on Saturday, June 8 th, 2019. Wahlberg, and her “Queen’s Team” have taken part in the event every year since the first Jodi’s Race in 2010.

March is my time to Celebrate the coming of Spring and my Birthday! I am so grateful to share my special day with my husband, ‘children’and grandchildren. It is also a Celebration of 28 years that Jack is Living with Cancer.

Having worked in the field of hospice and palliative care for many years, I realize most people are not comfortable talking about death and dying. In fact, as a community educator, I became quite creative when advertising programs and events so as not to scare people away! We live in an age denying, death averse society. However, our reluctance to confront the reality of our mortality doesn’t serve us well. Instead, if we are able to accept the fact that human beings are finite creatures—we will all die—then we are free to live fully present to the moment. I learned this life-giving lesson from those I companioned in hospice.

Please consider joining Global Dental Relief on an international volunteer trip and see the world as you have never seen it before!

As an educator and life-long student, Jane Barton, MTS, MASM,CSA, Caregiving Ambassador AARP Colorado, believes that knowledge provides the necessary foundation from which to make the best decisions. This is certainly true within the context of the caregiving journey.

As human beings, we experience a variety of losses over the course of a lifetime. When we lose something or someone, we grieve. However, we are not grief savvy. We don’t understand the twists and turns of grief. Our ignorance about the journey does not serve us well. Ill-informed, we have unrealistic expectations. We fail to access needed resources. We fear the unknown. And, we resist re-engaging with life in order to avoid future losses. Although I am well versed in the academic discourse regarding grief, it is my personal experience of loss that informed me the most.