Category Archives: Aging Parents

Ashes, 2 Ashes

Posted on September 2, 2014 by ivanbenson

It happened while I was watching a favorite TV series the other night. A young man was given his estranged father’s ashes to scatter as a memorial to him. He chose Eagle Lake, a special place in Alberta where his … Continue reading →

Posted in Aging Parents, Family History, Fathers, Stories, Uncategorized | Tagged Abraham Lincoln, Alberta, ashes, casualness, cremation, devotion, Eagle Lake, Gettysburg, Heartland, honor, human remains, interment, life is sacred, reverence, sacred ground, sacredness, Tucson Arizona, urn, urn vault, valued | 7 Comments

Return To Sender (Birds & Blooms)

Posted on April 15, 2014 by ivanbenson

Elvis Presley put it this way in his 1962 hit song, didn’t he? “Return to sender. Address unknown. No such person. No such zone.” But that is not exactly how I felt yesterday when I opened mail from the magazine, … Continue reading →

Posted in Aging Parents, Family History, Stories, Uncategorized | Tagged 1962, Acts, Acts 26:8, amazing, Apostle Paul, azaleas, beauty, Birds and Blooms, Bradford Pears, Dad, daffodils, dogwood trees, Easter, Elvis Presley, Genesis, Genesis 3:19, Hades, hyacinth, incredible, iris, King Agrippa, matter, mother, Passover, petunias, Redbuds, resurrection, Return to Sender, rose, spiritual, spring | 14 Comments

Not Until You Say “Uncle”

Posted on February 25, 2014 by ivanbenson

It was just a phrase that children used to say in a wrestling match when one child would get the upper hand; the beaten child would have to say “uncle” in order to be released from the debilitating grasp of … Continue reading →

Posted in Aging Parents, Assisted Living, Family History, Fathers, Nursing Homes, Stories, Uncategorized, World War II | Tagged 1950s, 1960s, 86, 92, acceptance, acquiescence, Alzheimer's, beside myself, British joke, character, concession, death, devastation, dilemma, dingy, disappointments, dreams, failures, faith, gloomy, grieving, higher power, loss, men of faith, RCA, say uncle, soap operas, submission, submit, surrender, The Lost Story, Uncle, undone, vanquished, without hope, wreckage, wrestling match | 10 Comments

Saving Mr. Banks (Authentic Identification)

Posted on December 30, 2013 by ivanbenson

In the late afternoon of March 28, 2009 I was traveling down a rainy street in my 2000 Chevy Metro when a young girl armed with a learner’s permit turned in front of me, causing me to hit her just … Continue reading →

Posted in Aging Parents, Family History, Fathers, Stories, Uncategorized | Tagged 1899, 1950s, 1960s, 1964, 1976, 1986, 2000, Adagio for Strings, Argonne Road, baby boomer, Chevy Metro, Clair de Lune, community, daisies, Danny Boy, Disney, dormant seeds, enrapturing, exhilarating, Finland, Finlandia, Five Forks Trickum Road, force majeure, God Bless America, heartstrings, Helen Goff, Hey Jude, intimate communion, irresistible, Irving Berlin, Jean Sibelius, Julie Andrews, Mary Poppins, Mrs. Travers, newly mown grass, nudge, platoon, Portsmouth Ohio, prompt, rubric, Russian, Samuel Barber, Saving Mr. Banks, schema, September 11 2001, The Beatles, time machine, time travel, Tom Smith Road, touch, Tucson Arizona, University of Arizona, Vietnam War, Walt Disney, your story | 12 Comments

Hitting Hard

Posted on December 7, 2013 by ivanbenson

On Wednesday of this week the traffic on the way to work was unusually heavy, and the pouring rain made it an even greater challenge to navigate. As I crept along in the seemingly endless slow moving stream of cars … Continue reading →

Posted in Aging Parents, Assisted Living, Family History, Nursing Homes, Stories, Uncategorized | Tagged accident, Alzheimer's, amazing star, appreciation, Bedouin, bleeding on the brain, change, Christmas, clarity, dead teeth, dementia, dentist, falling, Family, friends, give of ourselves, hard hit, ice, irreparable, Jesus, life events, murder of infants, pause, rain, refocus, routine, sacrifice, Salvation Army, shepherds, slipping, trauma, value, wise men | Comments Off

Dirty Stories (Adults Only)

Posted on November 19, 2013 by ivanbenson

I generally try to keep my blog stories clean and wholesome for readers, but from time to time I have to deal with subjects that are best termed dirty stories. I hope no one is offended, but . . . … Continue reading →

Posted in Aging Parents, Assisted Living, Comedy, Family History, Nursing Homes, Stories, Uncategorized | Tagged 88 years, attitudes, bad behavior, bed wetting, decency, diapers, dirty stories, Dunkin Donuts, final breath, growing, maturing, meaningful relationships, nurturing, pain in the butt, potty training, propriety, respectability | 10 Comments

Thanksgiving

Posted on November 6, 2013 by ivanbenson

Three weeks from this Thursday families across this country will celebrate a day that Abraham Lincoln proclaimed a national Thanksgiving Day in 1863. Prior to that there is evidence that some form of it had been celebrated by various colonies (and later by … Continue reading →

Posted in Aging Parents, Family History, Stories, Uncategorized | Tagged 1621, 1863, Abraham Lincoln, Alan Jackson, aunts, children, Family, Garrison Keillor, Gettysburg, grandparents, it takes a village, Kermit the Frog, love, Massachusetts, mother, niece, parents, pets, Plymouth, roots, seasons, Thanksgiving, Thanksgiving Day, togetherness, tryptophan, uncles, unifying, Wampanoag, Where Were You (When the World Stopped Turning) | 16 Comments

Follow The Yellow Brick Road

Posted on August 20, 2013 by ivanbenson

There’s nothing like a great story, is there? A great story can lift your spirits when you’re feeling down; it can take you on adventures that are both enthralling and enthusing; it can transport not only your mind, but also … Continue reading →

Posted in Aging Parents, Assisted Living, Family History, Fathers, Nursing Homes, Stories, Uncategorized | Tagged 15 years old, 1939, C.S. Lewis, communication, Cowardly Lion, Dorothy, Elton John, flying monkeys, Follow the yellow brick road, Holland Michigan, Horace Greeley, http://whitestonemp.com/film/heartless-the-story-of-the-tin-man/, Judy Garland, Keeshond, L. Frank Baum, metaphysical, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, nemesis, Peekskill New York, ruby slippers, Scarecrow, Smithsonian, Somewhere Over the Rainbow, story, The Emerald City, The Wizard of Oz, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Tin Man, Toto, Whitestone, Yellow Brick House, Yellow Brick Road | 10 Comments

Life in Bold Relief

Posted on August 17, 2013 by ivanbenson

It has been 65 days since I last made an entry on this blog. For a good while prior to that it was a weekly exercise to which I looked forward with great expectation. But in June, the press of … Continue reading →

Posted in Aging Parents, Assisted Living, Family History, Nursing Homes, Stories, Uncategorized | Tagged 1988, All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten, Alzheimer's, beauty, bold relief, cancer, character, death, dross, Fulghum, gravity, Life, obscurity, sobering, tragedy | 11 Comments

Night Riding (The Way Things Used to Be)

Posted on June 12, 2013 by ivanbenson

Childhood memories are almost indelible, aren’t they? I can remember lying in the floorboard of our black 1951 Plymouth, sleeping cozily on the left side of the hump that ran thru to the backseats; the hum of the engine and … Continue reading →

Posted in Aging Parents, Family History, Fathers, Stories, Uncategorized, World War II | Tagged 1 Corinthians 13, 1951, 1963, air conditioning, Alseep in the Deep, Bible, box fan, chattanooga, church hymns, cottonfields back home, Drink to me only with thine eyes, Edgar Allan Poe, Ezio Pinza, Father's Day, ice plant, magical, Norden Bomb Site, Plymouth, Plymouth Fury, push button automatic, razor strop, sacred, The Raven, Tucson, Wing Tee Wee | 18 Comments

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