Joyce Wayne: Retirement Matters

Since the Covid crisis in long-term care, our ideas of how best to age have altered dramatically. In fact, 93 percent of Canadians are now reporting that they plan to remain in their own homes for as long as possible, but we may be financially unprepared for a safe and comfortable retirement at home. The big question facing us is how to make aging in place a reality. During a recent webinar hosted by the Empire Club of Canada and sponsored by HomeEquity Bank, journalist and author Peter Mansbridge moderated a panel of red-letter experts on aging. It featured Bonnie-Jeanne MacDonald, Director of Financial Security Research at the National Institute on Ageing, Dr. Samir K. Sinha, Director of Geriatrics at Sinai Health System and the University Health Network and Laura Tamblyn Watts, CEO at CanAge.

Since the Covid crisis in long-term care, our ideas of how best to age have altered dramatically. In fact, 93 percent of Canadians are now reporting that they plan to remain in their own homes for as long as possible, but we may be financially unprepared for a safe and comfortable retirement at home. The big question facing us is how to make aging in place a reality. During a recent webinar hosted by the Empire Club of Canada and sponsored by HomeEquity Bank, journalist and author Peter Mansbridge moderated a panel of red-letter experts on aging. It featured Bonnie-Jeanne MacDonald, Director of Financial Security Research at the National Institute on Ageing, Dr. Samir K. Sinha, Director of Geriatrics at Sinai Health System and the University Health Network and Laura Tamblyn Watts, CEO at CanAge.

Although we remember little about de la Roche today, she was the celebrity writer of her time who travelled to Britain and America to promote her work and to represent Canada. She was also a single woman who lived with her cousin Caroline from the time they were children to the author’s death. Mazo experienced poverty and indifference in her younger years, and she experienced wealth and notoriety, as she grew older. She was prone to mental breakdowns and terribly sensitive. Although never married, Mazo and Caroline adopted two children and while living in the U.K., she became the only Canadian author received with open arms in Europe. During World War II, her novels about love and familial tradition in rural Canada appealed to a European readership tormented by war and upheaval.

If you’re looking at new ways to stay healthy as you age, exploring creativity could add a fresh touch to your daily routine. Researchers are discovering that it’s not only our body that needs to exercise, but our brain, too. For people like me, who lived in dread of gym class, creativity became my way of coping with feelings of inferiority at school. Everyone was focused on how efficiently they could make it over the gym horse without embarrassing themselves, or playing a sterling game of basketball. To be honest, I couldn’t do either. But I did find solace in reading, singing, theatre and eventually writing.

Today I worry about other things. Not how I’m going to make it through the snow. Instead, how we’re going to get through another fall and winter of COVID. Even for the double vaccinated, the Delta variant poses some danger. Without vaccination, the chance of contracting the virus is growing. Although I prefer to write about active ways to plow through the loneliness and isolation of this strange moment in time, there is a part of my mind stuck on that snowy field in winter, frightened that I won’t make it to the other side. As the Italian author Natalia Ginzburg writes, the pessimistic me can give in to “the temptation to let her life go to pieces.”

Beyond enjoyment and entertainment, VR could offer “immersive experiences going deeper and helping tackle isolation and cognitive decline, two of the biggest issues as we age,” according to the online magazine Next Avenue. Many studies show how isolation is linked to a 50 percent higher risk of dementia. “With this in mind VR could power new social connections via shared experiences,” says Kyle Rand, the CEO of Rendever, a Massachusetts high-tech company focusing on health solutions for older adults.

The report illustrated that the entire concept of retirement has changed. Our parents considered retirement as a time to stop working and to wind down their activities. It’s the opposite today. We see our retirement years –the New Retirement– as brimming with potential, as having more freedom – freedom from various work and family responsibilities, and freedom to explore new options and pursue new interests.

The report illustrated that the entire concept of retirement has changed. Our parents considered retirement as a time to stop working and to wind down their activities. It’s the opposite today. We see our retirement years –the New Retirement– as brimming with potential, as having more freedom – freedom from various work and family responsibilities, and freedom to explore new options and pursue new interests.

After staying at home for 16 months, I became accustomed to this other routine. I slept in every morning, stayed up very late every night, and depended on grocery or restaurant curbside pick-up for food and meals. In certain ways, I became leery of other people. All this wearing of masks and keeping six feet from others helps us to stay healthy. Still, it does have surprising psychological effects too. Now, like me, you might be thinking of expanding the reach of your daily activities, and you’re not precisely certain how to do that. If you’re single and living on your own, you might be considering jumping back into the dating pool.

As increasing numbers of Canadians line up to receive a second jab and more older Canadians have already been double vaccinated, the time has come to emerge from our pandemic caves. After 16 months of social isolation and near-total reliance on digital media to connect with others, our moment has arrived. As an organized person, who relies on my calendar and checks it frequently throughout the day, I’m beginning to plan. For me, planning is half the fun of doing. If the data is correct, at two to three weeks out from my second shot, I’ll be able to do much more than I can today.