The Coronavirus pandemic has forced many residential care facilities to go on lockdown and implement “no visitor” policies.  As a result, family members with loved ones in care facilities are feeling a heightened sense of “ambiguous loss”—a term coined by pioneering educator and researcher Dr. Pauline Boss to describe a form of never-ending grief.  Common in caregivers of family members with Alzheimer's and other forms of dementia, this feeling of grief arises because the person with dementia is “there but not there.”  Another form of ambiguous loss was noted by Dr. Boss in the early 1970s, when she interviewed family members of pilots who were missing in action during the Vietnam War.  These family members were unable to “let go” of their loved ones because they did not know whether the pilot was dead or alive.  Dr. Boss elaborates on both forms of ambiguous loss and tells us how she has experienced it in her own life.  She offers suggestions for how to lower stress levels and increase our tolerance for ambiguity, for caregivers and non-caregivers alike who are now confronting new and confusing relationships, ruptured by dementia and social distancing. Note: this episode originally aired on May 30, 2019.   

For a transcript of this episode please click here: Episode 171  

Explore the work of Dr. Pauline Boss: Ambiguous Loss

New from Agewyz Media!  Life Stories for the Ages
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Music: "Arashi" by Kakurenbo | CC BY NC | Free Music Archive

Like many adult children, psychologist Nancy Picard is determined to prevent her aging parents from contracting Covid-19.  But Nancy and her parents live in separate states.  So she's in daily communication with them, and has wired up their house with cameras placed at strategic locations - at foot level, to give her parents some privacy.  A returned Peace Corps volunteer who has supported people from age four to 94 as a clinician and researcher, Nancy also focuses on supporting people's needs for reminders through her health care startup, MemoryBeach.  As a psychologist and as a daughter who has cared for her elderly parents, Nancy understand the stresses of the moment and how everyday can feel incredibly long.  She's here to offer comfort and advice to caregivers, for surviving as individuals with their own needs, and as sons and daughters  tasked with filling the needs of family members and friends.

For a transcript of this episode click here: Transcript

Explore Nancy's startup: MemoryBeach

Learn more about Life Stories for the Ages: Capture a Story. Connect the Generations.

Renowned flutist Eugenia Zukerman has performed in concerts and recitals all over the world.  She was the artistic director of Colorado's Bravo! Vail Valley Music Festival for 13 years, and the arts correspondent for CBS Sunday Morning for over 25 years.  And then in her early 70s, Eugenia was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease.  Instead of crawling into a corner, she picked up paper and pencil and started writing - in poetry.  She has no idea why she wrote in verse, but the words flowed and resulted in her vivid new memoir, “Like Falling Through a Cloud: A Lyrical Memoir of Coping with Forgetfulness, Confusion and a Dreaded Diagnosis.”  Eugenia tells us how she stays positive despite her "gnarly" disease and about how she and her husband Dick are making every moment in life count, whether on tour with "Like Falling Through a Cloud" or among the bears and deers in their upstate New York house.  Dick tells us about his experience of Eugenia's diagnosis, and she reads from "Like Falling Through a Cloud. "  Tune in for a tale of love and the incredible power of music.

For a transcript of this episode click here: Transcript

Eugenia's website: Like Falling Through a Cloud
Facebook page: Eugenia on FB