By Rick Banas of BMA Management, Ltd.
I had the privilege of learning about Her Honor Hurricane Hazel earlier this week during a presentation conducted by Margaret Wylde at the National 2010 Advanced Marketing Summit for the Senior Living and Assisted Living Industries.
Margaret, who is President and CEO of ProMatura Group, LLC., a market research and consulting firm that has focused on consumers who are 50 years of age and older for the past 25 years, was talking with us about the evils of ageism and paternalism. To help set the stage, she introduced us to Hazel by playing a video of a
Rick Mercer Report about this remarkable 88-year-old who is the Mayor of a remarkable city in Canada.
Mississauga is the sixth largest city in Canada and the third largest city in the Province of Ontario. Missassauga not only has NO DEBT; it has a large surplus.
Hazel has been Mayor of Missassauga for the past 31 years and holds a political record unmatched by anyone else in Canada. Watch the video below to see what a challenge it is to keep up with her.
The video, Margaret’s presentation and a Senior Moments article in Tuesday’s USA Today newspaper got me thinking about the expectation in the United States of retiring in our mid to late 60s.
The story that ran on the front page of USA Today (Click to read) on the need for many to work well past 65 included comments from Alicia Munnell, Director of the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College. Alicia not only estimated that a sizeable percentage of the Baby Boomer population can work longer, but stated her feeling they “would be better off doing so.” On the other hand, she recognized that one out of every four of the Boomers would be unable to work because of health problems or because they lack the skills necessary to do the job.
From my experience in senior living & assisted living, age appears to be a poor predictor of a person’s health.
For instance, we have a resident (Manny Shellist) in our affordable assisted living community in Bolingbrook, Illinois, who learned the art of wood carving at the age of 92. At 96 years of age, he carved the Gettysburg Address (Click to view pictures) into an eight-foot high display.
And, in the book I read by Dan Buettner called “The Blue Zones,” Dan tells stories about a 91-year-old doctor in California who routinely assists with heart surgery procedures two to three times a week and a 100-year-old woman in Costa Rica who spends her day cooking, splitting logs and using a machete to clear brush from her yard.
Yet, we had a woman who only lived with us for six months before she passed away from her health problems. She was in her early 70s.
And, a woman who was on the flight I took to Florida to attend the Marketing Summit was going down to bring her Mom back to Chicago because she was not properly taking her medications. Assisted Living was most likely the next stop.
So let me ask you. What are your thoughts about the retirement age? What should the age be? Should it remain constant no matter what or should adjustments be made if life expectancy changes?
Also, can we create a retirement community that can appeal to Hurricane Hazel? What might it look like?
All affordable assisted living communities managed by BMA Management, Ltd. are certified and surveyed by the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services. All assisted living communities are licensed and surveyed by the Illinois Department of Public Health.
“BMA Management, Ltd. is the leading provider of assisted living in Illinois
and one of the 20 largest providers of assisted living in the United States.”
What are your thoughts? Leave a comment and let us know.
