Page 15 - Growing Old Without a Plan for Long Term Care is not for Sissies_Neat

Sissie! Who Are You Calling A Sissie? vii Introduction Sissie! Who Are You Calling A Sissie? ette Davis is often quoted as having said, “Growing old is not Bfor sissies.” As my parents have aged and I’ve seen the phys- ical, mental and emotional challenges that advancing age brings, I understand what Ms. Davis meant. Growing old really isn’t for sissies; rather it is one of life’s most diffcult challenges. While writing this book, using the working title of Long Term Care Planning 101 (I know, boring), I remembered Ms. Davis’ quote and realized that yes, growing old is not for sissies but growing old without a plan for long term care in place is even more challenging. Why? Because not only will we have the struggles that will nat- urally come with aging, we will have the added worry of how our aging will affect the emotional, physical and fnancial well-being of those we love. If you are like me, you might be willing to tolerate the thought of tough times when your health begins to fail as long as you are the only one affected. But when we stop and think about the emo- tional, physical and fnancial strain that might be placed on those we love, well that’s a different story isn’t it? We don’t want to think about needing extended care and we certainly don’t want to plan for it because that makes the possibility of growing physically frail and needing someone to provide our care someday seem more real somehow. It’s much easier to pretend