Wendy's Words

I recently found out that a relative in her late 80s was duped. She fell for it. How could that happen? She is a vibrant, smart, and engaged woman who has not suffered from cognitive decline. Nevertheless, she handed $6,000 in cash to a “detective” claiming that her granddaughter was arrested on charges of DWI and needed bail money. She told me that she spoke to her granddaughter who implored her not to tell her parents about the arrest. Her granddaughter was pleading for hel

The first hundred years are the hardest. That has always been my mother’s go-to quip -- which she adopted from her mother -- when someone in the family complains about life. I never gave it much thought; I typically just smirked and shrugged it off as a favorite family aphorism. But I started to think about its significance -- and it began to really resonate with me -- since the start of the pandemic. It hit home even more, while recently engaging in a pandemic chore . . . cl

The November 14, 2020 edition of The New York Times featured an interview with the iconic actress Sophia Loren who, at age 86, stars in a new Netflix film titled “The Life Ahead.” In response to a question about whether she is consciously concerned about aging gracefully, Loren aptly states: If you accept the aging process and live in the present, then you age gracefully. Some will undoubtedly respond by thinking . . . “Hmmm, sure, it’s easy for Sophia Loren to say that. She

My daughter had the audacity to move out of the house. She did this twice. The first time was when she left for college at age 18. Ok. She just turned 25. It was time. Like many others, Covid interfered with her move. Maybe her recent departure was hastened by my assurances during the pandemic – tongue in cheek – that her home residency wouldn’t turn into a “Grey Gardens” situation. I loved having her home. That was the pandemic’s silver lining. But truth be told, what I was

At Thanksgiving, some of us express concern about guests spiking the apple cider. This year we are confronted with concern about spiking COVID-19 cases and not inviting guests. Thanksgiving dinner is traditionally the time to talk turkey, catch up, and check-in with family members. Extended families tend to congregate as adult children who moved out of town migrate back to spend the holiday with parents, siblings, and other relatives. Depending upon their geographic proximity