Need a last-minute gift for an older person without the enduring the hectic last-minute crowds? Here's my short list. It highlights exciting, pleasurable and practical gifts that can help parents and grandparents age well.
- Lottery tickets, whether they are the scratch-off or wait-for-selection-of-the-winning numbers kind, add excitement to life.
- Netflix conveniently provides seniors, who don't go out to the movies, many hours of entertainment.
- Filling the car with gas for a senior on fixed income, or helping with other such essentials is a welcome gift. While shopping and taking out my led pocket magnifying glass to help the saleswoman read the care label on a coat, an 81-year-old lady, buying a jacket for her granddaughter, joined the conversation. When I asked her what she'd like for Christmas, she quickly replied "my health," then added "and someone filling up my gas tank....I just bought gas and it's so expensive."
- An IOU to take non-driving seniors shopping/to the doctor etc. and back.
While Netflix comes with a gift card, and lottery tickets speak for themselves, making a card for the last two gifts only requires a recipe card or a piece of paper onto which a picture of a car is pasted. Happy gift-giving.
PS While not easily obtainable (because it takes a while to get), the gift of an appointment at one of the leading hospitals' geriatric departments may be the best gift you can ever give a parent with health issues. Click the link http://helpparentsagewell.com/2010/09/13/update-on-best-hospitals-geriatric-division-visit/ and read Karen's short letter about her mother's experience.
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