The NEW SENIOR WOMEN

As people live longer and better lives, both women and men may look forward to many years in retirement. But living well in retirement depends on a variety of decisions people make as they prepare for and enter this new chapter of life and living. This book is for and about women approaching and experiencing life in their senior years. This largest and fastest-growing part of the population is living in a manner very different from our mothers, whose roles in life were much more predictable and circumscribed than ours. Today’s senior women live longer, are healthier, better educated, more involved in the world, and more active than the women who preceded us. Figuring out these uncharted years without role models or guideposts can be challenging, but, here, the authors gather the stories of today’s senior women, who have jumped hurdles, answered questions, and made decisions they never saw their mothers make.

Through these stories, readers will find fellowship and guidance, wisdom and acknowledgement of the challenges (and triumphs) that lie ahead. Culled from women in their sixties and beyond, and from a variety of backgrounds and current living situations, the stories reveal the realities of life for retirement-age women, and demonstrate the dreams, joys, concerns, and fears that come along with this phase of life. They address questions about living arrangements, adult children, loss of a spouse or partner, relationships and friendships, part time work, social connections, health concerns, and more. Facing these new situations with class, dignity, sass, and smarts, these women reveal the various ways today’s senior women can live and love her retirement years.

Barbara M. Fleisher, Ed.D., is a retired professor of education. She is the author of many journal articles and has presented her research at national and international conferences. She has made presentations and conducted many workshops for and about women in their 60’s and beyond, and has interviewed hundreds of women about their concerns as they face new challenges in this stage in their lives.

Thelma Reese, Ed.D., retired professor of English and of Education, created the Advisory Council for Hooked on Phonics and was its spokesperson in the ‘90’s. In that role, and as director of the Mayor’s Commission on Literacy for the City of Philadelphia, she appeared frequently on television and hosted a cable show in Philadelphia. Together, she and Barbara created and maintain the www.ElderChicks.com blog. She writes the monthly Family column for www.RightsideWire, and she and Barbara appear weekly on the Armstrong Williams show on Sirius Radio as he plumbs the wisdom of the “ElderChicks.”

Foreword
Introduction
1: My Mother’s Senior Years Were So Different from Mine
How Should I Be in This New Age?
2: So Now I’m Retired
How Do I Fill My Days So I Feel Good about Myself at Night?
3: I Love My Freedom and Independence
How Do I Maintain It?
4: We Love Our Possessions but They Are Starting to Own Us
How Do I Downsize My Life?
5: The Children Are Adults
Has the Family Dynamic Outgrown Issues of Control, Rebellion, and Sibling Rivalries? How Do We Keep a Sense of Family across Generations?
6: Can’t Use My Computer – or Knit or Rollerblade
The World is Changing around Me. How Do I Remain a Part of It? How Do I Push Myself to Learn New Skills?
7: We Laugh about Our ‘Senior Moments’
Should We Fear Them?
8: Rx Health
We Can’t Ignore the Changes. What Do We Do about Them?
9: Separation and Loss Are Facts of Life
How Do I Handle Them?
10: Sometimes I Feel Safest in My Senior Bubble
My World is Shrinking. How Do I Expand It?
Finale: A Gathering of the Wisdom We Find in Each Other