Just in time for her 90th birthday, White debuted a new TV series, “Off Their Rockers,” a hidden camera show where elderly individuals prank the younger generation. The pranks capitalize on the endearing qualities of the elderly. Example: A woman who looks to be 80 years old approaches a 20-something man in the airport… and sweetly propositions him to join the mile high club. In another sketch, two elderly men sit down on a bench next to a young woman and start doing the wave. She gives them a confused look and then joins them.

The senior pranksters in “Off Their Rockers” aren’t just getting viewers to laugh; they seem to be having a blast and even laughing themselves. Which is refreshing to see on network television: active, good-natured seniors enjoying their lives, engaging with the world around them.

American viewers, especially those already 55 and older, can borrow a page from White and friends. Laughter is actually terrific medicine for the elderly, and studies have proven it. An Australian humor therapist conducted a three-year study examining the impact of laughter and play on 400 seniors in 36 nursing homes. The dementia patients involved in the study seemed less agitated by 20 percent, said lead researcher Lee-Fay Low at the University of New South Wale’s School of Psychiatry.

“Twenty percent sounds like a small effect but it’s about the same amount, the same effect as you would get if you gave them an antipsychotic medication — medication you would use to treat schizophrenia, bipolar disorder,” Low told Reuters.

So next time your aging mother or father or friend seems down, take a cue from nonagenarian Betty White, and make them laugh. Or encourage them to make everyone else laugh. They’ll be smiling before they know it.

Calling themselves “wild old women,” the group of 12 protesters ranged in age from 69 to 82. On Jan. 5, they traveled to the bank with their walkers and wheelchairs from their San Francisco assisted living facility up the street, KCBS reported.

”We’re upset about what the banks are doing, particularly in our neighborhood and neighboring areas, in evicting people and foreclosing on their homes,” Tita Caldwell, 80, told the CBS affiliate.

On the heels of the Occupy Wall Street movement, the San Francisco seniors citizens were taking a stand against the bank, whose high fees and foreclosures deeply impact seniors on a fixed income, including those in assisted living facilities.

Bravo, wild old women, for not letting your age get in the way of exercising your right to free speech. And thank you, Bernalwood, for bringing this story to our attention!

Sheryl, grandmother on the Bachelor

When the 16th season of ABC’s The Bachelor debuted tonight, we met the show’s oldest contestant! Or was she?

Sheryl hobbled out of the limo on crutches and a knee brace, and professed her love to Bachelor Ben. During the previews leading up to the show, ABC let fans believe they had cast the oldest contestant in the show’s history, by showing only this sound bite: “I watched your show all last season,” Sheryl said, “and I fell madly in love with you!”

But when fans tuned in, they learned Sheryl came on the show to play matchmaker and introduce Ben to her granddaugher, Brittney, a sweet blonde who “loves her family,” Sheryl told Ben. The threesome spent time together during the cocktail party, when Sheryl sang her granddaughter’s praises.

Ben politely walked Sheryl out when it was time for her to go, and gave her a hug before she left in a limo. Grandma Sheryl told the camera that she hoped Brittney would “open her heart” to Ben. And since Ben gave Brittney a rose, we hope she’ll get a chance to do so. Unfortunately, we won’t be seeing more of Sheryl–until the hometown dates, that is!

Luckily ABC predicted fans might be curious about its septuagenarian “contestant,” and shared some information about Grandma Sheryl on its website.

Sheryl

Age: Age is just a number

Occupation: Grabbing life when and wherever I can

Do you like being the center of attention or do you prefer being more mysterious and why?
Definitely the center of attention

What is your biggest date fear?
Rejection

What does your ideal mate look like?
Tall, Dark, and Handsome like Ben

Tattoo Count:
0

If you really wanted to impress a man what would you do and why?
I’d do almost anything. I believe in taking risks in order to get the man I love.

Warren Hellman performed with his band, "The Wronglers," even in the last few months of his life.

Three months ago, you could find this septuagenarian on stage with his bluegrass band, or in the Presidio, running his daily dose of 16 miles.

Sadly, Warren Hellman, founder of Hardly Strictly Bluegrass festival and the Bay Citizen, died Sunday evening from complications of leukemia, his family said. He was 77.

Hellman was certainly on to something. Research has shown that making music can lower blood pressure, decrease heart rate, reduce stress, and lessen anxiety and depression, said researchers at the Berklee College of Music in Boston. And nearby, at the Stanford Center on Longevity, scientists are examining the possibility of using music to improve memory in older adults.

Exercise has also been shown to ward off the symptoms of aging. In an article published in 2010 in the Archives of Internal Medicine, researchers confirmed that exercise not only helps maintain good health but may even prevent the onset of chronic diseases, such as heart disease, osteoarthritis and dementia. For instance, one Harvard study of 13,000 women found that when it came to exercise, more was better. Compared with women who jogged for 20 minutes a week, those who jogged three hours a week or walked briskly for five hours a week were 76% more likely to age successfully without anxiety, dementia, heart disease or high blood pressure.

Certainly, with Hellman’s commitment to fitness and his love of music, he was able to live a full life up until his last few months. He traveled around the country with his bluegrass band, the Wronglers, performing with them as recently as October 12 in Nashville and recording an album with them earlier in the year. An accomplished endurance athlete, he twice completed a 100-mile running race through the Sierra Nevada mountains and, up until recently, he still ran 16 miles each day before going to work.

Hellman was fortunate that his physical well-being allowed him to access that which he loved; for others who are less mobile, there is Engage As You Age, which can bring activities and meaningful companionship to any seniors’ doorstep.

And his grandfather is the biggest reason and inspiration for his success.

As he shares on tonight’s 60 Minutes, Michael Buble got his starts thanks to his grandfather’s constant love and unwavering effort to get his grandson in the spotlight.

Buble’s grandfather would promise to fix people’s plumbing or water heaters if they agreed to give Michael a few minutes on stage. A music aficionado, he exposed Michael to big band singers and would spend hours sipping coffee in a shopping mall food court while Michael sang to shoppers and passers-by. When Michael finally got a record deal, it was his grandfather who broke the news to him that Warner Brothers would sign him to their label.

The men are lucky to have a genetic mutually-beneficial, inter-generational relationship. Not all seniors (or grandchildren) are as lucky as Buble and his grandpa. But Engage As You Age carefully pairs older adults and seniors with someone of a different generation, and the result over time is often a bond as tight as any family.

Engage As You Age can also bring introduce to seniors a person with a passion for big band Buble-like music should they not be mobile enough to drive to a music store or check out a concert. Though Buble’s grandfather may have access to live big band music via his grandson, many seniors do not. Thanks to Engage As You Age, those people won’t have to be musically lonley.

Among the featured topics included in this series is “Caring For Aging Parents Who Cared For You”. This conversation focuses on the challenge of caring for a loved one as they age, a role many will unexpectedly be forced to play. The guests on this topic are author Jane Gross who wrote “A Bittersweet Season- Caring for our Aging Parents and Ourselves” (a novel about caring for her ailing mother), Beatriz Terrazas (author of “My Mother’s Brain”- a blog on a Latino Family’s story about Alzheimer’s), and John Farley who edits and co-writes the Speakeasy column in The Wall Street Journal.

Another great topic covered by the series is on the realities of retirement, titled “Advice For the Golden Years: ‘Don’t Ever Retire Mentally’. A memorable quote that stood out to us was from 83 year old, Krishna Roy, who said “Don’t ever retire mentally. Keep your mind alive.” This is sound advice since a recent poll by NPR, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Yale School of Public health shows that 39% of retirees say their health is worse after retirement compared with 13% of non-retirees expectations for life after work. It is clear that this series is not only going to talk about death but also an active and engaged retirement among several related topics.

Here is an interesting website also put together through NPR; End of Life explores death in America and provides several useful links. The site provides transcripts on various topics surrounding death, resources for people with life-threatening diseases and their families and caregivers, as well as links to selected mediums on death and dying, hospice, death and caregiving, retirement, and much more. Enjoy!

Photos: Brandon Colbert Photography

Ninety-five years is 34,698 days. Which is another way of saying that 95 years is an achievement. An achievement worthy of a billboard.

On Highway 101 South, a billboard celebrates this very milestone, announcing Lou Poletti’s 95th birthday. Poletti started Poletti Realty, a South San Francisco family business founded in 1956. The full-sized billboard at the Airport Boulevard exit features a photograph of Poletti in a fedora and sunglasses and says in large white letters: “Happy Birthday Lou Poletti: We love you with all our hearts.”

Patch.com reported that Poletti’s kids arranged for the billboard birthday card, which ironically Poletti already owns (he purchased it 45 years ago). When his children recognized there would be a gap in advertising, they figured it would be the perfect attempt to celebrate their father.

Poletti's 95th birthday

But the billboard wasn’t the only birthday gesture; Poletti also celebrated his 95th birthday with a big party surrounded by friends and family. Quite the king!

Engage As You Age commends Poletti for maintaining an involved, engaged life even as a nonagenarian. Unfortunately, few seniors in the Bay Area get up into their 90s surrounded by friends and relatives. That’s why Engage As You Age exists: To bring the world to those who can no longer get out and explore it on their own. Our social visits infuse energy and vitality into the lives of seniors.

Maybe we should get a billboard, too.

“I plan to continue to be your coach,” Pat Summitt said in a two-minute video statement released by the University of Tennessee’s athletic department.

Summitt is just 59 years old. An icon in women’s basketball, she has led UT to eight national championships and 1,071 career victories, the all-time winningest coach in NCAA basketball history, regardless of gender. This will be her 38th season coaching at the university.

Summitt explained that she will maintain her role by collaborating even more with the team’s other coaches because “I realize I may have some limitations with this condition since there will be some good days and some bad days,” she said in letter posted on the university’s website.

Yet she didn’t consider retirement. She told The Knoxville News Sentinel that she was encouraged after speaking with Dr. Ronald Petersen, the director of the Mayo Clinic’s Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center. “He’s the one who told me you can coach as long as you want to coach and no one else had said anything like that to me,” Summitt told the newspaper.

With this in mind, a retired nurse and RV regular founded Escapees Care Center in 1997 in Livingston, Texas. It is the country’s only assisted living facility for full-time RVers.

Handing Over the Keys from Our Future Selves, produced by the Columbia School of Journalism News 21 staff, via Vimeo.

For a monthly fee ranging from $800 for singles and $1200 for a couple, residents at Escapees Care have access to the Care Center, where registered nurses are on call 40 hours a week. They take regular blood pressure readings, clean and dress wounds, help residents with their medication and schedule doctors’ appointments. The monthly payment also covers laundry, transportation and three meals a day in the Care Center’s dining room.

There is adult day care for those with dementia and a weekly support group for those with low vision. More important to most of the 50 or so residents, the community provides a social network, with daily activities, bluegrass concerts and Wii bowling.

The centrality of socializing at Escapees promotes exactly the kind of active and engaging relationships Engage As You Age seeks to bring to its Bay Area seniors. Bravo Escapees.

Read More: DIY Ways to Age In Place

Photograph courtesy of Houston Chronicle News Services and Pascal Parrot

When Jeanne Calment turned 90 she decided to have a reverse mortgage so that she could receive income for the rest of her life in exchange for her property. Any actuary would tell you that the odds were in the favor of the bank coming out ahead in this financial transaction. Jeanne Calment beat the odds and certainly got the better end of her reverse mortgage. Many seniors and their families don’t come out as well when they sign on the dotted line of a reverse mortgage.

Jeanne Calment is known by most people not for her reverse mortgage but for being the oldest person to have ever lived (with accepted documentation). She lived until she was 122!

Beyond being the oldest person to have ever lived, Calment was well known for being the last person alive to have met Vincent Van Gogh and still be alive. In describing her chance encounter with him when she was 12 or 13 years old, Calment that Van Gogh was “very ugly, ungracious, impolite, sick–I forgive him, they called him loco.”

Calment was an active woman and active senior. She is a great example of someone that engages as they age. She continued to ride a bicycle until she was 100 and didn’t need to move into a nursing home until she was 110!