Embracing Summer, part 4 with Daphne Davis

*The following is the output of transcribing from an audio recording. Although the transcription is largely accurate, in some cases it is incomplete or inaccurate due to inaudible passages or transcription errors.

The following podcast is provided by pinnacles senior placements LLC and answers for elders radio. Welcome back everyone, to answers for elders radio and we are here with Wonderful Daphne Davis from pinnacles senior placements and definitely I’m just like getting excited about summer just by talking to you, like I’m ready to get out in the world and think about all the things that I’ve missed in the last year. And it’s you know, just I went for the first time on a vacation down to San Diego not too long ago and spent a week on the Lahoya and it was lovely and on the beach and there were people around and although we were wearing masks a lot of the places, it was really an incredible opportunity for me to experience getting on an airplane again from the first time and how long. So I know that there’s this real inklings for so many of us to want to get out and do things. And and here’s the thing that I you know, our seniors. They need to get out and a lot of it. Sometimes it’s like a little bit about pulling teeth, because it’s like I’m not sure when to get out yet or I don’t know if I’m safe for all these things. But they can’t get out, can’t they? They absolutely can, and it can be in a big event or it can be a small event. I mean an event coming to your house and sitting on the back act and having a nice glass of iced tea and a barbecue and getting messy with, you know, ribs. That could be an event. You can keep this sin. You can keep it, you know, make it real big and have a whole weekend that you can do a local stacation place. Well, here in the Pacific Northwest, I mean even taking a drive and spending the day going to Mount Rainier, riding in the car can be wonderful. One of the things thinking about going for a drive, though, is remember that sometimes this machine, our body, might need to move around a little bit. The hits like it a little fist. So you know, have the coffee stop in in the plan, the ice cream shop, you know that you get some ice cream, or there’s an arboretum that you know has beautiful gardens that you decide to, you know, take fifteen minutes just to walk around the entrance of it or just to get the body moving. Fat Doesn’t stiffen up in that car ride. So those are something that you can think about as you’re embarking in that travel in a car. You also had events with grandkids. Maybe it’s been a while since Steven. You know, the grandkids are a great grandkids have have seen GRANDPA and grandma and that in itself remember family might a seen grandma and GRANPA for a long time, right. That’s right. And so it might sound really simple to you, but fifteen months of not seeing someone or seeing some on through a plexiglass or seeing someone through a window or on a zoom call, that’s very different than been seeing someone in person and to hearing and you in person for over a year. It’s yes, and yet I love I love you that I get to talk to you on zoom. But you know, the thing is is that when we look at how our worlds have changed, and certainly you know there’s little things just like going shopping that’s different, you know, and that’s that’s where I think a lot of the things that we think about. You know, maybe mom or dad needs new clothes, we’re going to go to the mall or we’re going to go to, you know, a favorite electronics store or something like that. These are outings that are big deal to a senior that hasn’t been out for fifteen months. That’s exactly right. I mean, probably not spending an all day shopping events, name, but if mom is a shopper and she hasn’t been to her favorite, you know, fashion store for a while, that’s an event. Throw up, you know, pick her up at ten o’clock. You’ve a little shopping, want a little more shopping, go home. Yeah, it’s an event. It doesn’t have to be extravagant. You could also remember that our senior centers are beginning to open up also and anxious to see their friends again. If that was the normal part of their week is to get to the senior center, do an exercise class with their friends. Maybe there’s some side arm traveling. Maybe, you know, dreaming about a trip to come out. Now that you know we might be able to have a little more flexibility and travel. But the senior centers, I mean just e’ve been going and listening to music, I know, and the can’t senior center has lunch and a music every Monday. I can that can be wonderful. Going to church in person, going going to the yeah, I mean I know our church has been online and so we’ve had opportunity to kind of worship together, but being there in person, that’s an event. So, you know, what ever brings your family’s joy. And this is where you’ve hopefully been having some conversations about dreams and bucket lists and just put them in the back of your head, though. You know, how could I satisfy this particular bucket list side and for mom and dad, you know, and creative about it. If somebody wants to go on a motorcycle ride and there, you know, ninety years old and can’t sit on a motorcycle right now, maybe there’s a movie about going on a motorcycle ride. Maybe there’s an Imax theater that’s got something going on. That would be, you know, and events and and satisfy that desire. Well, and movie theaters a lower open up. So yeah, again, they there’s a lot of if your loved one is is hard of hearing, they’re hearing devices and many of the theaters, if you can, you know, reach out and just call in advance. I think really it’s about, I used to think when I was taking here of my mom and I would take her someplace. It’s like I would say I’ll be right back, mom. I’d walk into the restaurant and I would do kind of a reconnaissance mission, I would call it, where I knew she had a really wheelchair. So I wanted to make sure, but I also looked how proud of the restaurant was. If I couldn’t get her wheelchair into the restaurant to a table, then I had a challenge and I we couldn’t go there. So it was something that I just took a minute and said, let me go in first, let me make sure that we’ve got a table for you, that we can get your wheelchair in and touch base with staff and say I’m bringing my mom in and I when she had to mention and I would say in advance, I want to let you know she has a little dementia, she’s a little slow. So notify your staff that we’re going to do the best we can. And it’s long to say no one advance. I found that rest so many restaurants were commodating like times ten and they were lovely and they were wonderful and certainly little things to take them out. I know she had a lot of anxiety about going into a public restroom. So making sure again, go just pop in first, make sure her that the restroom is clean, that they can get through the door, that you can get the wheelchair in through the door and that you could work with them. I think those are some things that we sometimes don’t necessarily remember as we go out into the world. Yeah, again, it’s the details, it’s thinking outside of yourself, remembering, you know, about the body, and it just takes a little more time to move and think things will go up famously. Well, I want to talk a little bit, and we talked to a tiny bit about this, but the resistance to doing things. You know, sometimes I hear from family members. Well, I give suggestions to my mom, I give suggestions to dad or you know, we talk about getting together and, you know, playing some cards, you know, with my mom and dad, but they just don’t want to do anything. It’s like they’re just too tired, they’re too war out, they just don’t have their dump and when you get into that situation sometimes it truly is an exhausted body. And so think in terms of an event or gathering. That would be a very short time frame and eat people back into life. It doesn’t have to be a grandiose event, but just ease people back into finding their energy level again. I don’t know about and that. I know when I’m in a slower mode, like what work, if I’m not on my game, being busy, I kind of get a Oh Parctic, you know. I get out of the busy life. And so we had come back to life with with some ease, with some grace, and just just having him come over to your house and it might only be an hour. You know the no me. What you’re saying to is people, you know, people like you and I were more type A personalities. We have to be busy, busy, busy, busy. I mean, I don’t know how many people say to me, Susanna, I don’t know how you do all that you do. You know you are, you sure you don’t take on too much? And I look and I’m going to go. You know what? I could not do just average. That’s not who I am. But with my mom I had to learn to find another gear and that was a challenge for me, but it was also worthwhile and I learned a discovered a lot more about myself. I learned to quiet myself and that is a accomplishment for women like you and me and men. It is it is my mom again. She this week. It’s been a really amazing week with my mom this week. But she said a simple little phrase and she said to me, sounds like Daphne. You’re getting more into a thought process of excepting rather than expecting, and I’m wise he’s on it this weekend. Knowing you. She said a gem, but accepting things for what they are rather than having expectations of what you want or what you think might happen. Again, it comes with conversation and it comes with, you know, as we’ve been saying in each of our segments, you know, being true to yourself and grument with yourself, introspective, knowing what’s really important as we embark in this coming out of fifteen months of solitude. First, first, but to be guys, and you, guys, are there to help, and so I accourage each and every one of you. If you have a senior love one that you’re not really sure what the next steps are, maybe you’re noticing some new changes in their daily living and how they are, you know, moving around, their interest level is you find that they’re depressed. If they need, you know, more assistance and what they did. A lot of our families are just coming together for the first time in a year or over, and so we are here. I want you to know that you can call Daphne and so daffe. How do we read? You can make me by phone at eight hundred and fifty five, seven hundred and thirty four fifteen hundred, and you can also reach us via our website at Pinnacle Senior Placementscom. And I do want to let all of our listeners to know that we do have a team of six at pinnacle senior placements. We have experts in all areas of western Washington. We stretch into eastern Washington and now, because of empire on the national level, we’re able to tap into people nationwide and we find the association website. The association is at end as a Nancy he is and Paul are Alliance Dot Org, and you’ll be able to tap into empire there. So it will be a good resource for you nationwide well. Definitely. I’m so glad that we’ve had this conversation and to each and every one of you that are listening. We are so thrilled that we’re moving into a new chapter into the world. Everything starting to open up and Independence Day will mean a lot of exciting things, I think, for this country as we start to open things up and meet our goals and aspirations of being out in the world again and to eat. For every one of you, we’re wishing you a wonderful boot to summer. We are, course, are with you every Chen every week and until next week, everyone be good to each other. The preceding podcast was provided by pinnacles senior placements LLC and answers for elders radio. To contact pinnacles senior placements, go to Pinnacle Senior Placementscom.