Bailey’s guide to ageing
Evolving: Finding Health and Happiness As We Age by Judy Bailey, HarperCollins, $39.99 ..
.. .. .. .. .. .. In her days as a TVNZ news presenter Judy Bailey became known as “the mother of the nation”, such was the trust placed in her delivery.
Now a grandmother and into her 70s, she’s writes as authoratively about coping mechanisms for the ageing process as she articulated the daily bulletins.
Bailey has the street cred to win trust. Add to that she writes in a warm, chatty style which draws readers in.
Quoting a wide range of professional sources, she brings insight and advice to those who have yet to reach their senior years about what is ahead of them. These revelations are matched with words of wisdom about how to handle the oftenunimagined situations that will be met.
Helpful hints offered on some of the subjects Bailey focuses on may be basic common sense. Diet, exercise and health care are examples. But this isn’t a once-over-lightly self-help guide for those in what’s sometimes euphemistically described as the “golden years”.
Bailey doesn’t sugar-coat the downside of ageing. Her insight into the lives of those who decline into dementia is heartfelt. She’s experienced it first-hand — her mother and mother-in-law died with it. A realist, Bailey emphasises they didn’t die from it.
Coping with grief, grandparents raising grandchildren, keeping abreast of paperwork (aka getting your affairs in order) are also among other vital topics featured.
The chapter appropriately entitled Dollars and Sense, makes sense of the reality that younger generations tend of overlook; that with retirement a regular pay cheque can no longer be relied on. Without savings there’s only superannuation. Scary stuff at the time in life that medical bills begin to mount.
For those with savings and capital there’s this wonderful piece of wisdom gleaned from financial professionals — spend it while you’re young enough to enjoy it. The further north your age climbs, the less you are going to need.
By compiling Evolving Bailey has done all New Zealanders a service. It’s an eminently sensible and readable handbook for all ages.
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