Interviews About the Realities of Aging

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Table of Contents

Interview I
Interview II
Interview III
Conclusion

Aging is one of the natural processes that come with health-related challenges. As people grow old, their bodies change with the accumulation of different types of molecular and cellular damage with time. This process leads to the slow by a slow decrease in mental and physical capabilities coupled with an increased risk of disease and finally death. Therefore, as individuals become old, their view about life changes including their goals, expectations, fears, and desires among other elements that constitute life.

This paper is a summary of interviews conducted with three interviewees. The first interviewee is Ronald, my godfather, and he is actively engaged in life. The second interviewee is someone that I know and love – my mother and the last interviewee is our long-time neighbor, Mrs. R, who has been bound to a wheelchair for the last year due to her old age. The questions asked in the interview revolved around the interviewees’ expectations versus the realities of aging, whether or not they are lonely, their desires for aging, personal life goals, what they want or not want or fear for aging and/or caregiving, and how society might be better designed for aging or older adults.

Interview I

Interviewee – Ronald (an actively engaged person)

Ronald was the first person that I interviewed. He has been my godfather for the last decade and we have grown very close to each other during that period. The last substantial engagement with Ronald was on the evening of Saturday, February 22, 2020, when I visited him at his house. We talked for hours and in the process, I would introduce my interview questions one by one and the answers would be interrupted by

long periods of narrations about his life experiences. Ronald is 78-years old and he is healthy leading a normal life. He does not have any expectations about aging and thus he takes life as it comes, which constitutes his reality of the aging process. He said he never thought too much about aging and all he wanted was to be in a position to do the things that he wanted to do. He noted that he does not feel lonely because with five children, 15 grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren, he normally gets frequent visits almost every other week. His children and their families also call often, almost every other day, to check on him, and this scenario has kept loneliness away.

In addition, he has three dogs that he takes for a walk every day – they are his closet friends and companions at this stage of his life. His desire for aging is that he remains in a position whereby he can take care of himself without becoming a burden to other people. However, inasmuch as he does not want to get to the point of needing specialized care, which is his greatest fear, he is aware of the reality and possibility of that time coming at some point in his life. Consequently, he is mentally prepared to handle that situation when it comes, and hopefully, he will gather the strength to live graciously when that day arrives.

His personal life goals were not many – he simply wanted to have children and family and currently, he only seeks to take care of his dogs. Ronald noted that public health systems should be optimized by focusing on more assisted living instead of establishing more nursing homes for the aged. He said that more assisted and affordable living centers would revolutionize the public healthcare systems for the aged. He also did not think that the society is designed for aging or older adults. On this issue, he said that more support for elderly people is needed. They need more monetary support and the issue of the gender pay gap should be addressed.

I noted that Ronald was concerned that society is not optimally designed for aging or older adults. My thoughts are the same and I think that there is an urgent need to devise strategies through which elderly people can be integrated into society. Promoting life-long learning and education for this group of individuals will play a big role in ensuring that their experiences are harnessed and utilized, thus making them productive for the longest time possible. In other words, society could be designed in a way that promotes the labor market participation of older adults, which would ensure that they are well supported financially and the quality of their lives is good. I also feel that learning institutions should focus on teaching financial literacy and prepare people to plan for their old age.

Interview II

Interviewee – My Mother (someone I know and love)

My mother was the second interviewee and we had our last substantial engagement on Sunday February 25, 2020, in the evening during our supper. My mother was born in 1954 in Clarondon, Jamaica. She has been married twice in her life and I am her only child. Some of her personal life goals included to be financially independent, raise a happy family, and travel a lot around the world. Her current life goals are to purchase a house and open a health and wellness business.

My mother has always been a dreamer and thus it is not surprising that she dreams of starting a business even in her late sixties. About her expectations versus the realities of aging, she argued that she hopes not to age the same way other people age – she wants to remain the same. However, such expectations are unrealistic because the natural process of aging has to take place and her body will change as the cumulative effects of cellular and molecular damage manifest.

She is not excited about anything with aging. She said that she has not been looking forward to aging, but acknowledged that she has no choice, but to age. She noted that she had not accomplished everything she wanted or lived the life she envisioned. She wished she had traveled more and had more children. She admitted that at times, she feels lonely, but she occupies her time with various activities to keep her busy. She confessed one thing that she did not want as she aged, which is also her greatest fear about the process, is becoming helpless or feeling like a child again. About whether society is designed for aging or older adults, she noted that everything is fast-paced, especially in New York.

She argued that older adults feel left out because they were not given a chance to adjust to technology. She feels that society could be better designed for older adults by making such people productive for as long as possible. This goal would be achieved by creating job opportunities for such a group of individuals. In order to optimize care for aging populations, she feels that public health systems should ensure more handicap access to buildings. She also felt that the transport system should be designed with the elderly in mind and suggested an elderly rideshare system would go a long way in solving transport needs for older adults.

She noted, with concern, that too many elderly people are driving, which is dangerous because the majority of them have poor vision that comes with aging. I was surprised that my mother was concerned about the inaccessibility of many buildings by the physically handicapped elderly people. I am highly interested in this issue and I think physically handicapped people should be involved in decision making to ensure that the many locomotion challenges faced by New Yorkers with disabilities are addressed.

For instance, I understand that all local and express buses can be accessed with a wheelchair, the Access-A-Ride service is costly and in most cases, it fails passengers. This issue should be addressed urgently as part of organizing the society in a way that accommodates older adults, who are likely to be on wheelchairs due to their age. I also echo my mother’s sentiments that older adults should be empowered economically by creating job opportunities for them.

Interview III

Interviewee – Mrs. R (our wheelchair-bound neighbor)

The last interview was with our neighbor Mrs. R, whom I have known for the last 5 years. She is 70-years old and she has been in a wheelchair for the last year due to health complications related to her age. Our last substantial interaction was on Monday February 24, 2020, in the morning when I visited her house. She is married and she lives with her husband, who is also bound in a wheelchair. She has 6 children, 10 grandchildren, and 2 great-grandchildren.

One of her personal goals was to raise a happy big family and she is satisfied with her achievement so far. She also wanted to be financially independent by the time she retired, and while she was on course to achieve this goal, health complications took a large part of her savings and she had to close her business venture.

Currently, she seeks to live one day at a time with her main goal being to remain happy by focusing on the positive side of life without letting depression get hold of her. She said that she is never lonely because she spends time with her husband talking about everything from politics to family life. Her expectations about aging are different from the realities of her current life. She never imagined that she would be confined to a wheelchair and she always thought of spending her old age somewhere on the beaches enjoying all that life could offer.

She desires to age graciously without further health complications and possibly stop using her wheelchair and stand on her own. She does not want her health to deteriorate further and become a burden to the people around her. She fears that ultimately she might have to rely on other people for simple tasks, such as feeding. She noted that society was not designed to accommodate aging or older adults. Given that she has to use her wheelchair wherever she goes, she spoke passionately about the challenges that she encounters every day when she has to travel. She noted that the transport system and other public systems such as accessing buildings was a challenge for people in a wheelchair.

She wished that the transport system and the public systems would be designed with physically handicapped people in mind. She argued that one of the ways to ensure that such improvements are made is to have physically handicapped people sit at the table of decision making. She was also lamented that older adults are seen as a group of people with little or no value to add to society, hence a burden.

Therefore, she suggested that this view should change and create programs that would promote socio-economic and political participation for elderly people. This form of integration would enhance the quality of life that such individuals lead in their old age. I share Mrs. R’s opinion about the challenges faced by elderly people, specifically the physically handicapped, when accessing public spaces in New York.

I use the subways frequently and every time I witness the challenges that come with using our transport system for physically handicapped persons. My suggestion is that every public amenity should have adequate structures to support accessibility by the physically handicapped and older adults. I also support the idea of improved socio-economic and political participation of older adults because they have years of knowledge and experience, which could play an important role in making society a better place.

Conclusion

I conducted three interviews with my godfather Ronald, my mother, and Mrs. R. The three interviewees are older adults all aged over 65 years. They all noted that the society was not designed in a way that accommodates the elderly and thus public health services should be improved to address this problem. I also noted that they all did not like the idea of getting the point where they have to rely on other people to take care of their physical needs.

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