Book Review/Senior Days
Senior Days
Insightful tales and No-nonsense Help from the frontlines of Eldercare
By Colleen Nichol with Brian Nichol
Long Lake Press
Paperback $14.95
By BILL DUNCAN
The Senior Times
Colleen Nichol wrote the book “Senior Days” from experience and the heart. She is an in-home senior care companion. She kept telling her writer/editor husband, Brian about the depths of her work with the elderly. He chided her about sharing her experiences with a wider audience because it was a story that needed telling.
She agreed if he would help. What she has published is best told by the subtitle, “insightful tales and no-sense help from the frontlines of eldercare.” That may sound all too serious, especially for seniors, but the humor Colleen provides makes it such a readable book.
“I knew you’d be an idiot,” Mary, one of Colleen’s senior clients on the first day together. Mary’s uninhibited comment reflected her disappointed that Colleen didn’t know how to make salmon croquettes. But Colleen learned and includes Mary’s recipe in the book.
Colleen includes humorous, always poignant and sometimes sad times in her role as a caregiver for the elderly. In the flick of a sentence, these tales transition from moments of high drama to laugh out loud hilarity. In the story, you will meet the 94-year-old gigolo, the blind lady who suddenly sees, the woman who couldn’t stop shopping and the elderly man who owns a cookie-eating dog.
In no way those the humor demean the seriousness of what Colleen has done for a living for the past 13 years, lovingly providing non-medical assistance and companionship to the elderly. She co-authored the book with her husband, Brian, whose writing, editing and publishing career spans more than 30 years, including editorial director of Aster Publishing Corp. in Eugene.
The book was probably written with the elder caregiver in mind, but it is so well done that any reader could benefit from the wisdom she shares, especially when she notes that the demographics of the population underscores one simple fact – an aging society. “Medical breakthroughs keep bodies and minds healthy longer,” she writes, “the baby boom bulge ensures there will be more elderly bodies and minds than ever before.”
The last pages of the book is a glossary of caring resources. Also to her credit, she includes a comprehensive index to assist the reader in finding particular information. It is a positive, upbeat book that frequently includes boxed features ranging from senior wisdom in quotes to advise on how to handle such things as when to hang up the car keys
(Bill Duncan is the Editor of The Senior Times. He can be reached at bduncan@nrtoday or by writing to P.O. Box 812, Roseburg, OR 97470)