At the recent Regional Forum in Morganton focused on North Carolina's Baby Boomers and the implications of their aging for our State, Gina Shell, director of the Western Piedmont Area Agency on Aging, reflected on her hopes and expectations as an "aging" Boomer. With her permission, we are pleased to share her thoughts with you.
I am a AAA director. I am also, by a narrow demographic margin, a baby boomer, born in 1964. I’ll turn 65 in 2029.
I have a set of very basic expectations for my own life as I grow older. These personal expectations parallel my expectations as a professional in the aging network:
I expect that I, as an only child, and my husband, who has one sibling, will be responsible for seeing parents and parents-in-law through their old age and assisting them if they need us. I expect to fulfill this responsibility whether our parents live nearby or far away, through easy access both to good information and to any health or supportive services they may need. I do not want anyone else to bear our responsibility, but I do expect to be able to make arrangements for assistance if we need it, to keep my job, and to care for my own children.
I intend to plan early and well for my own retirement, and I expect that my employer and the tax system will grant me quality choices and incentives to save and invest what I will need. On the other hand, I understand that many of my generation will not have the opportunity to prepare well. Their limited wages and family situations will require that other priorities take precedence over saving. So, I expect to continue to pay taxes to fulfill a social contract which condemns no one to suffer through disability or old age.
I expect that the systems of Social Security and Medicare will look quite different for me than they do for current recipients. I will not rely on them to see my family through.
I anticipate that my working life will extend past age 65. By then, I may be well into a second or third career, and I may be able to share a job or work part-time. I expect that retraining and continuing education opportunities will enable me to keep my work skills current, especially the hi-tech skills that are so much in demand.
When I reach retirement age, I expect to be able to choose from a full selection of safe and affordable housing arrangements. The housing I choose will incorporate access to a continuum of supportive, community-based services if I ever need to purchase them.
At that time of my life, I expect that my faith community and civic groups will have developed compassionate, hands-on responses to the needs of the frail and disabled in their midst. In fact, I intend to begin working with them now to be sure that they do!
Finally, I hope that throughout my life I will have had access to good health care information and treatment so that prevention and health promotion are strong personal habits in my old age.
These few simple expectations will be the measure of whether or not I grow old with dignity and personal choice. I have faith that we will have the wisdom and will as individuals and as a society to make these simple expectations into realities.