As time goes by…

Senior living news and reflections

Shared by Dan McCracken is an 81-year-old resident of Friendsview in Newberg, Oregon. Friendsview is a lifetime care community serving approximately 700 seniors receiving lifetime care through independent living, residential care, supportive living, or memory care.

Dan is an observer of the aging process through personal experience, involvement in the Friendsview community, and following the activities and development in the growing senior living sector.

October 28, 2016

“Celebrating the Change Makers” was the theme of the annual meeting of LeadingAge. The event took place this past Sunday-Wednesday (Oct. 25-28) in Philadelphia, PA. LeadingAge is an association of nonprofit aging service providers and continuing care retirement community when Cynthia and I live is a member at both the state and national level.

The following statement shared by Christie Hinrichs, LeadingAge board chair, is worth sharing because of its relevance to how we think and act as positive change makers here at Friendsview. “When you think about it, our entire field exists because someone was willing to imagine a different future. There was a time when growing old was too often viewed through a lens of limitation, and someone challenged that idea,” Hinrichs said. “They saw dignity instead of decline, community instead of isolation, purpose instead of irrelevance. They envisioned a future in which age did not determine worth, where wisdom remained valuable, where people continued learning, contributing, teaching, mentoring, laughing, loving and belonging. They imagined communities where people could continue becoming, and then they built them.”

I’m indebted to the founders of Friendsview who in the late 1950s imagined a community where people would continue “learning, contributing, teaching, mentoring, laughing, loving and belonging.” It became a reality in 1961 and residents, staff, and board members who have been change makers over the past 65 years have continued to imagine a future that would serve the needs of seniors.