The older adult I chose to go a life review of is my grandmother, Arlene Price. She is 80 years old, born May 26th, 1935. This puts her in the middle-old biological age category. I used the interview protocol questions to guide my interviews. There were a total of three interviews. One was in her home on September 27th, and two over the phone on October 1st, and 3rd.
She was born in Wallace, North Carolina at home on the farm where she group up. Life on the farm and working in the blacksmith shop are some of her earliest memories. Arlene was number five of eleven brothers and sisters. All the children worked on the farm growing up and money was tight. She recalls her mother creating a baseball for the kids to play with out of an acorn with …show more content…
Life review is not just a way for older adults to share their experiences and reflect on their life in a way that is helpful to them, but it is also a learning and growing experience for the listener or interviewer. The time that my subject grew up in was culturally so different from they society we live in today. Things that they considered ordinary then, are absurd today and visa versa. This is also something we see in the book Tuesday’s with Morrie. We see Mitch start to gain some much knowledge about life and what is important by his visits with Morrie. Talking with Morrie about his life and the little “meaning of life” sessions, end up changing the way Mitch lives for the better. He begins to focus more on his family, and less on his work, which was consuming him (Albom, 1997). As a whole, I have learned that older adults just want to be heard. They just want you to listen to them, and be with them. In our society, older adults are often ignored and not respected as people who have a lot to share, but they do. We can gain so much more from older adults when we take the time, than they gain from sharing their life experiences with
She was born in Wallace, North Carolina at home on the farm where she group up. Life on the farm and working in the blacksmith shop are some of her earliest memories. Arlene was number five of eleven brothers and sisters. All the children worked on the farm growing up and money was tight. She recalls her mother creating a baseball for the kids to play with out of an acorn with …show more content…
Life review is not just a way for older adults to share their experiences and reflect on their life in a way that is helpful to them, but it is also a learning and growing experience for the listener or interviewer. The time that my subject grew up in was culturally so different from they society we live in today. Things that they considered ordinary then, are absurd today and visa versa. This is also something we see in the book Tuesday’s with Morrie. We see Mitch start to gain some much knowledge about life and what is important by his visits with Morrie. Talking with Morrie about his life and the little “meaning of life” sessions, end up changing the way Mitch lives for the better. He begins to focus more on his family, and less on his work, which was consuming him (Albom, 1997). As a whole, I have learned that older adults just want to be heard. They just want you to listen to them, and be with them. In our society, older adults are often ignored and not respected as people who have a lot to share, but they do. We can gain so much more from older adults when we take the time, than they gain from sharing their life experiences with