By SCOTT FUNK
We’ve been writing this column for 11 years. I say “we” because I write it and my lovely wife, Kelly, translates it into English. It began as a way to advocate for Aging in Place (AIP). The purpose was to talk about challenges in growing older at the place of one’s choice and to share information about available support services. Over time, as the AIP concept went mainstream and I grew a lot older, the column has morphed more into stories about my aging experience and less about aging recourses.
Feedback from readers has indicated your enjoyment of my stories. Many of you have expressed appreciation and have shared tales of your own. A few people have reached out for assistance with aging issues. Others complained the column wasn’t about Aging in Place.
We have been struck by the growing gap between the title and the columns. Because AIP remains an important subject to us, we have determined it best to change the name of the column with the New Year, so this will be our last Aging in Place column. We will still be writing each month, but the column will be called “Boomer Funk: An Aging Blog.”
It will continue to be a sharing of this aging Boomer’s surprises in growing older. We hope you will enjoy these wrinkled tales of time and its consequences. In a way, it will still be about AIP, as we hope to remain in our home in Vermont for as long as we possibly can. One of the clearest messages we have gotten from those who have reached out to us is that our experiences are not unique, they are as common as we had hoped.
Why Boomer Funk? Because I am a Boomer and I am a Funk. On top of that, back in the 60s, funk was a word with so many meanings it became a synonym for miscellaneous. It meant stuff in general, a kind of soul (think Funky Chicken), an attitude, or something quirky: funky. It evolved so many meanings, it sort of meant nothing at all.That seemed right for this column. After all, we don’t know where we are heading, what will happen when we arrive, or whether we will like it or not. Sounds miscellaneous to me!
And so we change the name, but not the spirit of the column. We look forward to writing for you and hearing your thoughts. After all, we are in this aging thing together.
Aging in Place it doesn’t happen by accident, and the more we change, the more we stay the same.
Scott Funk is Vermont’s leading Aging in Place advocate, writing and speaking around the state on issues of concern to retirees and their families. He works as a Home Equity Conversion Mortgage reverse mortgage and HECM for Purchase specialist. You can access previous Aging in Place columns and Scott’s blogs at VermontFunk.com. His e-book is available on Amazon.
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