Aging Issues - Lecture from a Retirement Community - Laguna Woods Village 2/15/2017

Laguna Woods Village is a well-planned retirement community.  The consistently pleasant weather all year around is boasted as the main attraction for all the retirees.  When I walked with Dr. Kao on the sidewalk every afternoon, I either saw the active retirees on golf carts driving by or the aged neighbors like Dr. and Mrs. Kao walking with walkers and canes.  It's legal to own your personal golf carts and occupy the personal parking spaces in the village.  The paradox of aging hits me deeply.  It's a reality depressing in a way, but we just must fact it. 

Li-Lin, 58 now, their daughter lives in Tucson Arizona, would spend 8-hour drive every month with her husband, Phil English, to tidy up the house and run the errands like I did with them this week.  They bought this retirement house for them without further parents' consultation from Houston, Texas two years ago.  Both Koa's health was gradually slowing down after the stroke and Knee surgery.  I had visited them in 2005 when I had a business trip from Montgomery County Government.  Dr. and Mrs. Kao were already walking with the canes without four-feet attached.

Mrs. Kao invited me to attend her High school - 嘉義女中-65+ reunion the first day when I arrived.  I ran into quite a few people uprooted from Montgomery County, Maryland and of course many many of them were from different parts in US.  It's a small world here in Laguna Woods Village.

I stayed one extra day recommended by Kao's family on Wednesday to attend a lecture by Dr. Peter Huang, 黃勝雄醫生 a former medical advisor to former President Ronald Reagan and a former head of the Department of brain surgery at Saint Francis Hospital in Philadelphia.  He is also a resident in Laguna Woods Village. 

His topic - Memory problems among seniors.  The subject is not new, but we must confront it when I was teaching Dr. Kao how to clean up his Windows 10 Desk Computer every night.  His sipping cognition and slow finger motion forced the mouse's cursor moving constantly hitting other applications by accident on his PC.  It created many applications and opened unknowingly with duplication.  We spent hours to clear off his internal cached web content - reached up to 350 MB of the default internal capacity (350 MB) set up by his son, Albert.  No wonder Dr. Kao was frustrated about not being able to see some of his e-mails or other correspondences.  Anyway, he was happy to re-connect with some of his old friends and relatives via e-mail again.

It's no surprise that this retirement community with housing ranging from the cheap apartments to the expensive lake front properties can attract so many retires, either highly reputable luminaries or any Nobodies to settle here. 

I still love to go back home to Maryland with four season weather cycles.  The all year around pleasant weather and varieties of landscapes in California would not be as entertaining to me.  The freezing temperature does not kill me, it only makes me stronger.  I would like to become a smiling senior with family and friends around me.

Li-Lin and Albert are planning a 60th wedding (diamond) anniversary for Dr. and Mrs. Kao on 6/3/2017.  Of course, I'm invited but still debating about attending or not.  I suggested them for Ben to repair and digitize 50 pictures for them when they flipped the dingy yellow pictures page by page, reminiscing and storytelling, from their old photo albums after our dinner time.  They can use them to show at the ceremony.  All of Kao's family love my idea.

I might come back when I can to visit them one more time before I leave southern California in June.