After 3,548 baseball games in the outfield and from the dugout, baseball player and manager Lou Piniella announced Sunday he would retire from the Chicago Cubs to care for his 90-year-old mother in Florida.

“I cried a little bit after the game. You get emotional. I’m sorry, I’m not trying to be,” the Chicago Cubs manager said Sunday, his eyes tearing up again and his voice cracking.

Piniella is certainly not the only boomer to answer the call of an aging parent. The numbers of people like Piniella are rapidly rising. According to the Family Caregiving Alliance, unpaid family caregivers will likely be the largest source of long-term care services in the U.S. By 2050, 37 million people will be the primary caregiver for an aging relative — an increase of 85% from 2000.

The 66-year-old Piniella announced before the Cubs-Atlanta game that he was retiring immediately after it was over and planned to spend more time with his ailing mother, according to the Associated Press. Lou is lucky. He is in a financial position to retire and be with his mom. He can also afford to pay for homecare.

“My mom needs me home and that’s where I’m going,” Piniella said.

Piniella recently said he planned to retire at the end of the season. But he missed four games in August to be with his mom in Florida — and decided Sunday that his divided attention wasn’t helping anyone. Although Pinella could afford to hire a private homecare company or a caregiver, he decided to

Engage As You Age provides the social interaction and intellectual stimulation to supplement, complement and diversify the time, energy and emotion of primary family caregivers. While we commend Piniella for prioritizing his mother’s needs, even he — with his impressive endurance — needs a break sometimes.

She stands two inches shy of five feet and didn’t begin acting professionally until she was 93. Mae Laborde isn’t looking to move into an assisted living facility or seeking homecare. Chances are that she is on the phone trying to track down her agent.

At the age of 93, Mae Laborde became a professional actress. She’s appeared in commercials for Sears, JP Morgan and Lexus and even appeared in The Heartbreak Kid with Ben Stiller. She’s also regularly been cast on Mad TV and had a small part in the film Pineapple Express.

Mae’s agent, Sherrie Spillane, says that Mae “has got this way about her that’s so endearing that everybody falls in love with her. She’s got a cute little face, and she’s very funny.”

In the past she had worked as a department store clerk and a bookkeeper. While she may be cast as an “older person” she regularly attends casting calls for the “40+ group.”

Mae has won an award on Hulu.com and says that she still gets residual checks from a Lexus commercial. She drove until she was 97 and swears she had a clean driving record. According to Mae she decided to stop driving and didn’t have to have a “take the car keys away from mom” discussion with her kids.

You don’t have to be a professional actor or actress to act. Engage As You Age has held several Shakespeare and theater classes at assisted living and retirement homes in the San Francisco Bay Area. We’re also able to come to your home and provide your homecare worker or caregiver a break and act out scenes from your favorite play with you! Contact us today if you’d like to learn more about our home visits for elders and seniors in the San Francisco Bay Area. While Mae might be the oldest professional actress, you can certainly become the world’s oldest working actor or the world’s oldest working actress.

Many studies have found that a person’s social environment can impact his or her health. In fact, numerous studies have found that lonely people suffer a higher rate of mortality than people who are not socially isolated.

Researchers from UCLA took things a step further in a 2007 study in which they examined the biological impact that social isolation can have on the human body. The study was published in a 2007 issue of Genome Biology and found a distinct pattern in immune cells of people that are perpetually lonely.

Steve Cole, one of the researchers in the study, says that “What this study shows is that the biological impact of social isolation reaches down into some of our most basic internal processes the activity of our genes.” The differences in immune cell patterns between those seniors that were socially engaged and those that were not was found to be independent of other risk factors such as health status, age, weight, etc…

What does this mean for seniors and their families? First and foremost it points to the benefits of proactively planning ways to keep homebound seniors engaged with friends, family and people that they genuinely enjoy spending time with. While homecare and caregivers are a great start, seniors can often feel socially isolated even with people around them. Elders need more than homecare, what they need are people that can engage them in meaningful conversation and activities. Engage As You Age works with families to ensure that their parents or partners are engaged and having fun in-between visits from family and friends.

Click here for more studies on socialization and click here for some ideas on activities for seniors that are homebound.

Do you live in an assisted living facility? Do you live in a nursing home? An independent-living retirement community? Do you go to adult day care or have homecare or a caregiver help you out so you can age in place as opposed to moving into a facility?

Most importantly: do you consider yourself an elder?

And do you have some wisdom to share?

Then think about entering the 2011 Elders Prose and Poetry Contest. Winning submissions will be included in “Gems of Wisdom: 365 Days of Poetry and Prose by Elders.” The book is scheduled to be published in May 2011.

Any resident of California who considers himself or herself an elder (meaning no age requirement) can enter the contest. AgeSong and Barnes and Noble — organizers of the contest — suggest that elders write about “real emotions and feelings and keep a special person or event in mind as you write. For example, questions to ponder: What is your relationship with the world? What do you want to teach someone?”

We work with seniors across the Bay Area, and all of them have a story to share. As we encourage our wise and diverse seniors to submit a poem or essay, we hope you’ll consider asking your mom, dad or spouse to also enter the writing contest.

Gail Jonas pictured in the PressDemocrat.com

Twenty-six miles is a tremendous distance even for the most fit individual.

So Gail Jonas, a longtime Healdsburg resident, deserves a round of applause for going the distance at 70 years old.

On Aug. 1, Jonas ran a marathon as part of the Vineman Ironman Relay, which she completed with her son (who cycled 112 miles) and grandson (who swam 2.4 miles).

Jonas — an activist, attorney and mediator — was the oldest Vineman Relay participant in this year’s race. She finished the marathon course in seven hours.

“What amazed me was all the support from the spectators,” Jonas told the Press Democrat. “…The cheers and accolades I received were simply stunning. Their enthusiasm sustained me.”

The intergenerational and familial team joined Jonas for the last leg of the race, and together, they crossed the finish line. They serve as a terrific model for the kind of scaffolding and encouragement family can provide to its elders.

Gail Jonas (center) with her son (left) and grandson just before the Vineman Relay began.

Unfortunately, not everyone is as lucky as Jonas. Many seniors and older adults live far away from their family, or if they live close by, might see their children and grandchildren once or twice a week, which leaves a lot of time to feel lonely or isolated.

Everyone — no matter their age — needs both intellectual stimulation and physical fitness. (Maybe a marathon is unrealistic for many 70+ seniors, but a walk around the block or a chair yoga class is just as beneficial.)

Engage As You Age can provide seniors in the Bay Area with the kind of intellectual and social stimulation that all people need to feel connected and happy. Whether you’re training for a race or need a home caregiver or homecare to help you get from point A to B, our services provide the kind of interaction that helps people feel fulfilled as they age.

Engage As You Age believes everyone deserves social interaction and enrichment — especially those who can’t easily (or ever) leave their homes or retirement communities. That’s why we pair talented, caring and intelligent Activity Specialists with isolated or immobile seniors. Because we know how important it is to have access to meaningful conversation and enriching learning opportunities.

This month, Medicare is finally taking notice that physical health care also can be provided at home.

The new healthcare plan soon rolls out a new program, Independence at Home, that will send doctors and nurse practitioners to check up and treat 10,000 of the most vulnerable seniors for whom leaving home is impossible and even dangerous.

To be eligible for the project, patients must have multiple chronic conditions and be unable to perform normal daily activities like bathing and dressing. They must also have been hospitalized or needed other high- cost care in the last year.

Independence at Home was inspired by successful house call programs in several cities, which demonstrated that they can keep seniors healthier while saving on health care costs by avoiding hospitalizations and emergency department visits.

While we commend Medicare and health care reformers for recognizing the importance of sending medical professionals into seniors’ homes, it’s still a reactive effort — that is, waiting until seniors are so frail and unhealthy that a medical house call is necessary.

We believe all seniors — and their caring families — would be better off with a more proactive approach. Engage As You Age is proactive about aging by providing the kind of social engagement and cognitive stimulation that keeps people healthier and happier.

Ivy Bean has passed away at the age of 104. Most likely the oldest regular user (if not user) of Facebook, Ivy Bean kept her (at last count) 4,949 friends up to speed with her life.

On August, 15, 2008 an article described Ivy as being “the world’s oldest facebook user.” At that time she had 9 friends. In less than two years she found a way to touch an additional 4,940 people’s lives on a daily basis.

Born in Bradford, England in 1905, Ivy worked as a mill worker from the age of 14 until she was 73.

Ivy heard about Facebook.com from some caregivers at the assisted living facility that she moved into when she was 101. Within a year she was online and updated her account on a regular basis.

Ivy embraced the social networking website and was quickly embraced by a growing number of online friends and followers.

Below is an interview of Ivy in 2008. It isn’t what you think. She’s using a web camera, has a headset and is using Skype (or an online video program) to talk to Olly Mann on tv!

Ivy is a great example of how a senior can benefit from computer lessons and connect with friends and family online. What is clear from Ivy’s facebook posts is that she had local family that would regularly come and see her and engage her in activities and conversation.

Many of the 1.1 million seniors in the San Francisco Bay Area do not have family nearby that can regularly visit them. In fact, 9 out of 10 of these seniors want to remain in their homes making it less likely that they’ll receive computer lessons to get them online to connect with other people online like Ivy did.

About 10,000 feet above the earth, Bonnie Townsend wished herself a happy birthday.

And not just any birthday. Her 90th birthday.

Yes, this 90-year-old woman from Port Charlotte, Fla. celebrated her 90th birthday by strapping on a parachute and jumping out of an airplane as her family looked on from down below.

Townsend’s enthusiasm and zest for risk-taking — even as she begins her 9th decade of life — should serve as an inspiration to us all. Whether we live in retirement communities, assisted living homes or have a caregiver, or even if those things seem far off, we can take a cue from Ms. Townsend: Savor life.

The July 21 jump was the first time Townsend had ever been skydiving.

“I just let my self fly, like a bird,” she told the Associated Press.

When asked if she’d skydive again, this grandmother claimed she was done… but might try water skiing for her 91st birthday.

Dr. Walter Watson, a 100-year-old gynecologist continues to see patients on a daily basis and still serves as chairman of his department at University Hospital in Augusta, Georgia! At an age when many people hire a caregiver or companion for physical assistance around the house, Dr. Watson continues to make his rounds! He certainly isn’t looking into homecare anytime soon.

CBS evening news recently profiled the centenarian doctor on its Assignment America series. During the program, Watson said that he has delivered between 15,000 and 18,000 babies during his career. Believe it or not that is nearly 10% of all of Augusta, Georgia’s total population! Locally, these children are known as “Watson Babies” and often span 3 generations in local families.

Watson stopped delivering babies in 1995 (after 51 years of doing it!) but continues to drive a few blocks to work each day! That “when do you take the car keys away from your parents” conversation probably won’t happen for a long time between Watson and his kids.

We’re wondering if Dr. Watson is the oldest doctor in America? Please contact us or post a comment if you happen to know who the oldest living doctor is.

Below is the Assignment America profile of Dr. Watson:

Heard of the Make a Wish Foundation? Chances are you have.

Heard of An Elderly Wish Foundation? Chances are you haven’t. If you’re a resident of Contra Costa County you should learn about this amazing organization. They’re similar to the Make a Wish Foundation but grant last wishes for terminally ill seniors that live in Contra Costa County.

A geriatric care manager in Contra Costa County told me about An Elderly Wish Foundation in the summer of 2009. What they do moved me to contact them and learn more. Before I knew it I was having coffee in Lafayette with Mary Champman, the Executive Director of An Elderly Wish. She greeted me with a bag of peaches from her backyard and some amazing first-hand accounts of the myriad of wishes that they’ve granted seniors.

Their office is in a former jail cell (no joke) and their heart is in the right place. I’ve recently joined the board and am planning on helping them launch a new website and also spread the word about what they do.

The Contra Costa Times recently gave this great organization some much-needed press coverage, chronicling a last wish that they granted to an El Sobrante woman who wanted to go on a vacation with her son to Montana to see fossil excavation sites.

Contact An Elderly Wish Foundation today at 925-978-1883. Donate your time, your skills and spread the word about the amazing work that they do. There a unique San Francisco Bay Area organization and a an amazing resource for families in Contra Costa County.