Friday, January 31, 2014

How The Village Concept Can Help Your Aging Parents

The village concept is a new model for retirement, helping seniors remain in their homes as they age. Seniors frequently struggle with increased needs associated with aging but are determined to maintain their independence while staying in their homes. The Village Movement is a grassroots concept sweeping across the nation. The virtual village idea originated in 2001 in Beacon Hill, a neighborhood of Boston; nationally there are now more than 110 villages in place and an additional 125 in development. Here's more about the village movement and what it entails:
  • Members pay an annual fee to have access to a screened network of service providers for home repairs, yard work, or any service required to live at home.
  • Vetted vendors offer their services at a discount to village members. In addition, free services such as transportation to a medical appointment, computer help, or something as simple as changing a light bulb are available through a network of screened volunteers.
  • Some of the volunteers may be village members, following the "neighbors helping neighbors" concept.
  • There is often a cross-generational component of the program involving students and young adults helping village members.
By being a village member, seniors receive peace of mind, service discounts, concierge-style services, and a stronger connection with their community. Across the nation, village networks have been providing the resources necessary for seniors to stay in their homes for longer periods of time. Nationally, the average village member age is 74, and the annual membership dues average $400.
Not only does the village concept benefit seniors but often their adult children as well, because they're seeking resources within the market to provide services for their parents. Kit Armstrong, who lives on the Monterey Peninsula in California, noted how easy it was to send a gift to her mother, who lives in a village setting in Carmel, California. "It's often a time-consuming challenge for adult children to find competent and vetted volunteers and professionals to help meet the needs of an aging parent," she said. "Access to the excellent resources of a village has made that task much easier."
You can learn more about the village movement and what's available in cities across the U.S. at http://www.vtvnetwork.org/.

Dementia Signage for the Home

Thursday, January 30, 2014

How to Conduct Family Tree Research

Those of you who have been busy collecting data for your family tree will probably have assembled by now a great variety of documents, memorabilia and artefacts that throw light upon and add real interest to your emerging family tree research.

But when it comes to putting all this material into some kind of meaningful order, there are some basic considerations to take note of. On the one hand you may be content to compile an informal family scrapbook and associated family tree charts and diagrams, without applying the full science of genealogy.

On the other hand you may wish to be much more formal and thorough and plan to produce a full-blown family chronicle. This will contain the charts and diagrams of the branches of your tree, but will also include well-researched mini biographies of key people on your tree, together with notes of where they lived, and the social conditions of their time. This procedure will provide a much more rounded presentation and stand up to the scrutiny of detail.

To achieve this higher standard and with it also a greater level of satisfaction it will be essential to make a clear distinction between two types of source. There are Primary sources and there are Secondary sources. The most important Primary sources are certificates of Birth, Marriage and Death. Probably the more recently issued certificates will already be in your possession, while the earlier ones may have to be searched and paid for. Then the evidence from the Census returns will often prove invaluable too.

Secondary sources are often a valuable source of information, but in the very nature of things they are less reliable. My Australian uncle was a surgeon captured by the Japanese in China. We have a few of his original letters, which are primary sources, but most of the information about him comes from memories relayed by his daughters in their more recent biographical statements; they were quite young at the time. Their diaries, although close to the events surrounding his capture, internment and eventual release are still secondary sources.

More recently we have witnessed the calamitous impact of the tsunami on the people living on the North East coast of Japan. Anyone who experienced the trauma or witnessed the devastation was a primary source. Even those who witnessed the event on TV, and can express what they felt at the time are considered to be primary sources.

Secondary sources would be accounts written up after the event, TV documentaries, and any articles or books issued later. All these accounts would offer valuable information, often graphically and compellingly presented, but they would still be secondary sources none the less. Historians often have to start with secondary sources, and then dig around for the primary sources behind them. Happy searching!

Dementia Signage for the Home

Wednesday, January 29, 2014

Family Tree Scrapbooking

So what is family tree scrapbooking all about? When you think about it starting a scrapbook of your family tree is not unlike starting a scrapbook on any other subject. For the focus of most scrapbooks is on people, whether they are relatives, fellow high school friends, sporting associates or anyone else whose memory we wish to cherish. They have been an important part of our lives and therefore we gain much pleasure in recording information about them both for our own interest and for posterity.

And when it comes to researching and building our family tree and collecting important documents about people who have been special to us, we naturally look for a way to show it off. And so we turn to scrapbooking. By putting all those important pieces of family history into a scrapbook format we are constructing a document that could be of immense interest to our children and to our children's children. And of course all that hard work and tireless research will need to be stored in a safe place to protect it from loss.

How do we get going? If you take a look at About.com (scrapbooking) you will find the stories of dozens of people for whom scrapbooking has become a source of pleasure and joy, and who continue to be grateful for all the pleasure and social contact it has brought them. First of all select a scrapbook that is going to be strong, serviceable and large enough to contain the amount of data and images that you expect to put into it. You will probably be well advised to acquire one to which pages can be quickly and easily added at a later date.

Before you begin you need to decide on the structure of your scrapbook. You have three main choices. You might like to start with your father's side, and work all the way down from the oldest generation to the youngest generation on that side of the family, and then carry on with the same procedure for the mother's side Or you could decide to start with your mother's side and repeat the process down to the present generation. Or again, if you have a large amount of material to process overall you might well decide to start one scrapbook for the bloodline and another scrapbook for the distaff side.

When you have decided how you are going to organize your scrapbook(s) gather together all the documents, images, memorabilia, awards, citations, certificates, condolence cards and letters and anything else you are planning to incorporate. Some of these items, such as medals and certain types of memorabilia, will not be suitable to place directly into a scrapbook, but will need to be stored somewhere else, with a clear reference to their significance In the text and their location in an appropriate storage medium.

After you have set up a title page the next page could feature an attractively presented chart of the oldest generation for whom you have records. This is where a member of the family might be encouraged to use their artistic skills and get involved in the whole creative process, and maybe help a younger family member to identify with and place even greater value on this whole endeavor.
 

Tuesday, January 28, 2014

When a Spouse is Terminally Ill

When you are looking into the eyes of your loved one declaring that you will love, honor, and obey each other until death, you really don't know the full significance of those few words. You actually are vowing to take care of one another for the remainder of your lives. What happens when one spouse becomes terminally ill? Just hearing those words is devastating whether you have been together a year or thirty years.

In most marriages or relationships, both partners provide care for the other. One may handle household chores while the other, financial things. The couple typically settles into a routine to accomplish all these necessary tasks. When one becomes ill however, the other must handle all of the responsibilities, plus take care of the sick partner. This disruption of normal routines can be very stressful.
 
When a married person is diagnosed as terminally ill, their spouse often becomes the primary caregiver, taking on different roles as nurse, counselor, and personal assistant. The job of caring for a dying spouse can become very exhausting physically, as well as mentally. It would be very wise for the caregiver to accept any help offered by friends or family. This will allow the healthy spouse time to unwind and seek other outlets for their stress and anxiety.
 
After receiving a terminal diagnosis, most people will share the news with family and close friends. Many people will offer their help and well wishes. Sometimes, the ill patient will reunite with loved ones who have been distant. Sometimes though, the ill person may prefer the company of a small circle of loved ones. It is very important that the wishes and preferences of the ill one be respected and honored when allowing people to visit.
 
When faced with a terminal illness, it is urgent that legal business is handled. Having a legally binding document in place is the only way the terminal patient can assure that their end of life care will be given as they want.
 
It is not easy knowing you are going to lose someone you love. This time will be filled with many emotions. It is extremely important that the couple make and take time to express their love for one another. This is also the time to allow each other to express themselves. Allow the patient to voice anything they feel they need to say. Just letting the ill person know that they are truly loved can give them a sense of peace about death. Allow the dying spouse an opportunity to express their feelings and love to the surviving spouse. This expression of love can help both partners accept the reality of death.

Dementia Signage for the Home

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