The impact of aging: Seniors tell of their hopes, concerns for their own growing-older children

Baby Boomers have been recognized for being more educated, having a longer life expectancy and being more numerous than the generations that preceded them. Now that the first wave of boomers is nearing retirement, the financial, physical and emotional challenges they will face may be met with the assistance of the people who have helped them all their lives - their parents. A group of residents at The Village Manor retirement community, mostly in their 80s, spoke with the Daily News about the concerns they see their grown children, some nearing retirement age, are having. According to The Kentucky Elder Readiness Initiative, a statewide survey of Baby Boomers and older adults in the state, 43.5 percent of Baby Boomers surveyed in the Barren River area said that Social Security is or will be a major source of income during retirement. John Stone, 89, said his children aren’t so sure that they will draw the Social Security benefits that he has received. “They think it’s going to peter out,” said Stone, who lives in Village Manor with his wife, Jan, 88. “They face a difficult environment in which some of the old standbys like government bonds can’t keep up with the rate of inflation.” Economic concerns, whether it’s the question of there being enough in a retirement account to sustain one’s retirement or enough money to provide for younger generations of children, seemed to pop up among older boomers and their elderly parents. Jan Shehan, whose husband, Norris, attended college on the G.I. Bill after World War II, said she was concerned that boomers would be struggling to help finance their children’s college education. “You’d think they’d want young people to go on to higher education, but they’re not making it easy to do,” Shehan said. Home Instead Senior Care, a national caregiver company with an office in Bowling Green, touts the “40-70” rule, which asks adults at or near age 40 to discuss important health issues with their parents who are 70 years or older. Fred Blessing may have been a little older when he moved into Village Manor two years ago from Alabama with his wife, Ellen, but he involved his five children in the decision. “Our five children live in Colorado, Canada, North Carolina, New Jersey and Kentucky,” Blessing said. “When Ellen and I talked we said the best place for us to be was to be near one of them. I told the children we’d choose one place but we didn’t want it to look like we were trying to separate anyone or play any favorites.” The Blessings moved to Bowling Green because they were most familiar with this part of the country, Fred Blessing said. Norris Shehan, 83, said that among his wife and their grown children, health care costs are one of the chief concerns, particularly in a slow economy. “I think regardless of the political party that’s in power we’re going to see tax increases and a Medicare system that all of us are dependent on is not going to be sustainable over the long term,” Shehan said. “We see these escalating costs and there’s not any incentive for those people in business to stop escalating costs. In my day our incentives were based on producing a quality product at lower cost.”
Read Full Story