Word: elders
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...back a time when neighbors were an integral part of one another's lives, sharing meals and recreation--and providing companionship and a helping hand. That concept has been co-opted recently by older people looking for a way to combine their autonomy with access to a supportive community. Elder cohousing features single-story units; step-free entrances; grab bars; and wide, wheelchair-accessible doorways...
Proponents of elder cohousing see it as an affordable and creative alternative to assisted living and nursing homes. Sixteen of ElderSpirit's 29 units are federally subsidized rentals that cost from $300 to $350 a month for a one-bedroom and $484 a month for two bedrooms. The remaining 13 homes have sold for $90,000 to $100,000 for a one-bedroom and $113,200 for two. All residents chip in $150 a month for expenses, including maintenance and, when the common-house kitchen is completed, communal meals available to all. And everyone makes a commitment to help...
Prospective elder-cohousing residents, attracted by newspaper ads or word of mouth, meet with a developer, architect, banks and other financing agencies before ground is broken to come up with a project to fit the personality of the group. They get to know one another through regular meetings as the project develops. Impatient or authoritarian types tend to drop out because it takes about two years to complete a project and all decisions and rules for the community are by consensus. New members can jump in at any time, even after the project is built, but must pledge to abide...
Thus was born Elder Wisdom Circle (EWC), a group of volunteers 60 and older who offer advice on a variety of subjects to anyone who writes in seeking it. Its website, launched in 2001 with one advice giver, currently has about 600, most of whom find out about EWC through their senior centers or by word of mouth. They field about 3,500 letters a month, 35% of which come from young people in their teens to early...
...then there's the strange case of Donald Rumsfeld. Here was a flaming exception to the Bush family code of honor. Rumsfeld was an ancient rival of Bush the Elder who became Secretary of Defense, Woodward implies, because of a mild Oedipal spasm: the Younger wanted to prove the Elder was wrong about the guy. How to explain the current President's continuing, suicidal loyalty to the architect of the Iraq debacle, even after Laura Bush and then chief of staff Andrew Card lobbied Bush to replace Rumsfeld in 2004? It's a perfect Freudian boggle: if he dumps Rumsfeld...