Author: Natasha Josefowitz

Dear readers, This is the last column I will be writing. I have been writing to you for over 40 years. You may not know it, but I will 97 and I think my time has come to put down my pen. Thank you for all your comments and letters. One of the highlights of MORE >

There are definitely conspiracy theories against old people, and I can prove it. Whoever the conspirators are, they just want to make life harder for us seniors. Those of you who are young may not have noticed the terrible hardships created for us older folks. “They” (the conspirators) have made all the stairs significantly steeper. MORE >

I recently read about a Missouri Congressman who was among the majority that voted on a new rule forbidding women from entering the chamber with bare arms, requiring them to cover up. My initial reaction was: “Here we go again! Men controlling what women wear.” It made me ponder about the role men have held MORE >

A few nights ago, I was having dinner with Marianne, a close friend. We were reminiscing about our European childhoods and the surprising similarities in our upbringing. Marianne was born in Germany in 1922. I was born four years later in France. We were eating root vegetables together, a combination of carrots and turnips, which MORE >

A few months ago, I was walking 4,000 steps a day using long strides. Then, one day as I was opening my refrigerator, the handle broke in two and I crashed onto the kitchen floor. An X-ray revealed a compression fraction in the L1 disk of my spine. This was the last thing I needed. MORE >

Just before the holidays, I was looking for some ideas for my next column when I started feeling unusually tired. A blood draw at the clinic showed an unexpected loss of forty percent of my hemoglobin requiring a trip to the ER. Now I had my topic for my column. It is not always good MORE >

I was walking down the street one day when I saw a large sign: “Body Shop.” I stopped and thought, “How interesting! Maybe I can get a new body instead of this 96-year-old one. My current body doesn’t see so well, hear so well, or walk as well. Maybe I can get one that does MORE >

There are many types of prejudice, but they can broadly be placed into two categories: personal and institutional. Personal prejudice is not based on reason, nor on actual experience. It is a feeling rooted in suspicion, fear, and intolerance. It is a negative attitude and adverse judgement without knowledge about race, gender, nationality, religious affiliation, MORE >

Recently, I received an email that looked, at first glance, legitimate. It came from PayPal (with what appeared to be the company logo) and sought to confirm if I had “incurred a charge in the amount of $463. If this amount is not correct, please call the number given.” Readers, let me start here with MORE >

About twenty-five years ago, Dr. Cliff Colwell replaced my right hip. The operation was successful; it has never bothered me since. However, at the time of the procedure, he advised me that my left hip had osteoarthritis and would also need a replacement soon. Twenty-five years later, I was standing in the sales office of MORE >