How can one become a parent to one's parent? Moskowitz probes the heart of our culture--one that refuses to comprehend the inevitable process of aging.
Three Legs in the Evening comes from the Sphinx's riddle in Sophocles' Oedipus Rex, in which Oedipus is asked what creature walks on all fours in the morning, on two legs in the afternoon, and three in the evening. The answer, which Oedipus gets right, is Man, who crawls as a baby, walks upright as a man, and leans on a cane in his old age. Received wisdom, in other words, can be unreliable. Enter the story of Sally B, an over-sixty widow about to retire from her successful greeting card business in the aftermath of 9/11. She has a devoted family who relies on her wit and wisdom. But suddenly all hell breaks loose — her best friend dies, she falls into an open grave and she breaks her ankle. As this is happening, her children’s marital lives are unraveling, her grandchildren are in turmoil, and a man she has known from a time before comes back in her life. Taking place over a year, this is a story of love in a time of horror, as well as the profound and surprising ways in which everything Sally thought she knew changes. Sexy, funny and heart-wrenching, and much like Kent Haruf's Our Souls At Night, Three Legs in the Evening speaks about people running out of steam, running out of time, and finding solace and wisdom even in the finality of all that. A life carefully built can crumble in a moment, but what happens then? Sally B. plays it out as best she can.
To age is human; we reach majority, come into maturity, celebrate milestones, light candles for every passing year, until we get old. And then we turn away and deny it, decry it. Why? This narrative study explores the incomprehensible fact of ageism and what it feels like to live through it. *** Finishing Up On Aging and Ageism is a call to action, for all of us to reckon with our own aging by continuing to be in the world, to continue doing what we love, and to continue doing what we can to break down the bars of the cultural cages of ageism. To me, that also means to be on the look-out for Moskowitz's next book. From foreword by Judith Pearl Summerfield
In this first person narrative, Bette Ann Moskowitz tells what it is like to be a volunteer long-term care ombudsman, and how, with thirty-six hours of training, she entered the unfamiliar world of a nursing home to advocate for its almost-three hundred residents. She brings the reader along as she learns the ropes, makes mistakes and meets tragic and beautiful people struggling for their lives. When she becomes assistant coordinator of the program, she gets an even broader view of institutional life, advocacy, and old age. Problems are big and small: a man discharged for having a sexual relationship with a fellow resident; residents not getting evening snacks; an intelligent resident with mental health problems fighting to be a partner in her own care. Author of DO I KNOW YOU? A Family's Journey Through Aging and Alzheimer's, Moskowitz says advocating for the old and disabled in long-term care can be a transgressive act. "We often oppose the authorities by standing up for the one with two different shoes against the Suits. Sometimes we don't know enough. We have access, but little power. Yet, an ombudsman may be the only thing standing between the resident and disaster." In addition to shedding light on this unheralded and important volunteer health care worker, THE ROOM AT THE END OF THE HALL raises questions about how America and Americans go about the business of old age, and how old age itself is changing as the baby boomer generation enters it.
How can one become a parent to one's parent? Moskowitz probes the heart of our culture--one that refuses to comprehend the inevitable process of aging.
In this first person narrative, Bette Ann Moskowitz tells what it is like to be a volunteer long-term care ombudsman, and how, with thirty-six hours of training, she entered the unfamiliar world of a nursing home to advocate for its almost-three hundred residents. She brings the reader along as she learns the ropes, makes mistakes and meets tragic and beautiful people struggling for their lives. When she becomes assistant coordinator of the program, she gets an even broader view of institutional life, advocacy, and old age. Problems are big and small: a man discharged for having a sexual relationship with a fellow resident; residents not getting evening snacks; an intelligent resident with mental health problems fighting to be a partner in her own care. Author of DO I KNOW YOU? A Family's Journey Through Aging and Alzheimer's, Moskowitz says advocating for the old and disabled in long-term care can be a transgressive act. "We often oppose the authorities by standing up for the one with two different shoes against the Suits. Sometimes we don't know enough. We have access, but little power. Yet, an ombudsman may be the only thing standing between the resident and disaster." In addition to shedding light on this unheralded and important volunteer health care worker, THE ROOM AT THE END OF THE HALL raises questions about how America and Americans go about the business of old age, and how old age itself is changing as the baby boomer generation enters it.
Three Legs in the Evening comes from the Sphinx's riddle in Sophocles' Oedipus Rex, in which Oedipus is asked what creature walks on all fours in the morning, on two legs in the afternoon, and three in the evening. The answer, which Oedipus gets right, is Man, who crawls as a baby, walks upright as a man, and leans on a cane in his old age. Received wisdom, in other words, can be unreliable. Enter the story of Sally B, an over-sixty widow about to retire from her successful greeting card business in the aftermath of 9/11. She has a devoted family who relies on her wit and wisdom. But suddenly all hell breaks loose — her best friend dies, she falls into an open grave and she breaks her ankle. As this is happening, her children’s marital lives are unraveling, her grandchildren are in turmoil, and a man she has known from a time before comes back in her life. Taking place over a year, this is a story of love in a time of horror, as well as the profound and surprising ways in which everything Sally thought she knew changes. Sexy, funny and heart-wrenching, and much like Kent Haruf's Our Souls At Night, Three Legs in the Evening speaks about people running out of steam, running out of time, and finding solace and wisdom even in the finality of all that. A life carefully built can crumble in a moment, but what happens then? Sally B. plays it out as best she can.
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