Supporting a Friend Who Is a Caregiver, 9 Flu Prevention Tips for Travelers, and Hidden Flaws That Can Derail an Estate Plan

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History (Non-Fiction): Island of the Lost by Joan Druett – This remarkable history tells the true story of two shipwrecked crews whose very different approaches to survival produced dramatically different outcomes.

Memoir: From the Roach Motel to the Ivory Tower by Gail Finney – A candid journey from humble beginnings to academia explores ambition, resilience, relationships, and reinvention.

Self-Help: Eat That Frog! by Brian Tracy – This practical guide offers strategies for beating procrastination, prioritizing important tasks, and getting more meaningful work done.

Romance: Mansfield Park by Jane Austen – A quiet young woman raised among wealthy relatives navigates love, loyalty, and social pressure while discovering her own convictions.

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When a friend is caring for a spouse, family member, or someone else close to them, it's natural to want to help. The difficulty typically stems from knowing how. Saying, "Let me know if you need anything," is kind, but a caregiver who already has dozens of decisions to make may not know what to ask for.

Often, the most useful support is specific, practical, and consistent.

Instead of making a general offer, suggest something you're genuinely willing and able to do:

Specific offers remove the burden of figuring out how you can help. They can also be easier to accept—a specific act seems less demanding than the general idea of support.

Still, don't be discouraged if the answer is no. And remember that one no doesn’t mean no forever. Ask again another time. Needs and schedules change from week to week.

Caregiving can gradually become the subject of every conversation. Your friend may appreciate being asked how things are going, but they may also welcome the chance to talk about something completely unrelated.

Tell them about a funny interaction you had while in line at the pharmacy. Ask what they're reading. Bring over coffee and talk about your child’s new puppy. Invite them for a short walk if they're able to get away and talk about anything that comes up as you go along—the weather, the changing leaves, roadwork, or a new housing development.

While these topics might seem trivial, even shallow, compared to the challenges your friend is facing, that triviality is the point. When caregiving consumes so much of a person’s life, an hour of ordinary friendship is sometimes exactly what someone needs.

Caregiving situations can last months or even years. Support is often plentiful immediately after a diagnosis or major change, then gradually fades.

A quick phone call, occasional meal, birthday card, or regular invitation lets your friend know they haven't been forgotten. If they repeatedly decline invitations, keep including them without pressure. Circumstances may eventually change, and simply knowing they’re still included can mean a great deal, even when they can’t always attend.

You don't need to solve a caregiver's challenges to make their life a little easier. Practical help, patient friendship, and simply continuing to reach out can provide valuable support during a demanding chapter in their life.

We're looking for seniors who are embracing life with enthusiasm, purpose, and adventure. Whether you're traveling the world, starting a business, volunteering, pursuing a passion, learning new skills, or simply making the most of every day, we'd love to hear your story.

Think that might be you?

Email [email protected] with a photo and a short bio. We may feature you in an upcoming edition of Seniors Magazine.

Look through an old photograph today. Don't just identify the people. Notice what's in the background.

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“My Mother’s Garden”
From the life overview of Anne T., 82, Rochester, New York. Shared with permission.

When I was growing up, my mother had a vegetable garden behind our house. It wasn’t much, but she treated it like a farm.

Every spring, she planted tomatoes, green beans, lettuce, cucumbers, and zucchini—more than we could possibly eat.

It became a serious problem.

By August, there were so many zucchinis that my mother started leaving bags of them on our neighbors’ porches. She gave some to the church, and she even gave some to the woman who worked at the post office. She finally had to put a box outside with a sign that said FREE ZUCCHINI.

One morning, I found her standing in the kitchen holding an enormous zucchini.

“What are you going to do with that?” I asked.

She looked at it. “I don’t know.”

We both started laughing.

After she died, I planted a small garden of my own. I had never been particularly interested in gardening, but I wanted tomatoes like hers.

The first year, I grew six plants.

I got enough tomatoes to feed the neighborhood.

I also got zucchini. Far more than I could use.

I stood in my kitchen looking at it and suddenly understood.

Some things, apparently, are hereditary.

***

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The True Size Of…
Ordinary world maps can make countries look dramatically larger or smaller than they really are. This interactive tool lets you drag one country across the globe to compare its actual size with another—you may be surprised by what happens when Greenland heads south or Alaska lands over Europe. It’s a wonderfully simple way to see familiar geography differently.

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This wonderfully strange online experience takes you to some of the most surprising sights captured by Google Street View around the world. One click might land you beside an enormous roadside sculpture, an abandoned ship, a bizarre building, or a landscape that hardly looks real. Keep clicking to reveal another mystery destination—it’s an easy way to lose 20 minutes exploring the wonderfully weird corners of the world.

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A bird feeder can turn an ordinary window into surprisingly good entertainment. Chickadees dart in for a seed, cardinals linger nearby, and before long you may find yourself recognizing individual species—and noticing when a familiar visitor hasn't appeared that morning.

Getting started is simple, but choosing the right food and keeping feeders clean makes a big difference.

Different foods attract different visitors. Black-oil sunflower seed appeals to a wide variety of backyard birds, while nyjer can attract finches and suet is popular with woodpeckers, nuthatches, and other species.

The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service's guide to feeding birds explains what to consider before putting out food and how feeding practices can affect wild birds.

Choose somewhere you can easily see and maintain your feeder while considering nearby windows and places where predators could hide.

Window collisions are an important consideration around feeding areas. The American Bird Conservancy's window guide explains practical ways to make windows safer for visiting birds.

Don't forget water. A shallow birdbath can attract species that may never visit a seed feeder. The National Wildlife Federation's bird-friendly gardening resources include ideas for providing birds with water, food, shelter, and places to raise their young.

Feeders and birdbaths need regular cleaning because congregating birds can increase opportunities for disease transmission. Remove old or moldy food, clean up accumulated seed beneath feeders, and replace birdbath water regularly.

The National Audubon Society's bird-feeding advice covers feeder maintenance, food choices, placement, and other practical considerations for creating a safer feeding area.

Keep a small notebook near your favorite viewing window and record the birds you recognize, when they appear, and which foods they prefer.

For help identifying unfamiliar visitors, the Audubon Bird Guide app includes information on more than 800 North American bird species, along with photographs, sounds, and identification tools.

Over time, you'll begin recognizing seasonal visitors and familiar regulars. A simple feeder can become a front-row seat to an entire neighborhood you hadn't noticed before.

If news alerts, shopping offers, or other messages from websites keep appearing on your computer, you may have accidentally given those sites permission to send notifications. You can turn them off without blocking the website itself.

In Chrome, click the three-dot menu and go to Settings > Privacy and security > Site settings > Notifications. You’ll see which websites are allowed to send alerts. Find one you no longer want and change its permission to Block.

In Microsoft Edge, go to Settings > Privacy, search, and services > Site permissions > All permissions > Notifications. In Safari on a Mac, go to Safari > Settings > Websites > Notifications.

Websites often display a pop-up asking you to Allow notifications. Unless you specifically want alerts from that site, choose Block, Don’t Allow, or simply close the request.

Be especially cautious if a website claims you must click “Allow” to prove you’re human, watch a video, or continue browsing. That can be a tactic used by deceptive sites to gain notification permission and later send misleading ads or scam messages.

Today: Tuscany, Italy

Rolling hills, vineyards, medieval towns, and memorable meals make Tuscany a wonderful place to settle in and slow down. Florence provides the cultural highlights, while the countryside offers an entirely different pace.

Ingrid’s Tip: Instead of changing hotels every few nights, choose a countryside base and take day trips. Having a driver for a day or two makes visiting hill towns much easier.

Unscramble the letters to find a famous person, event, or object. Think you know it? Reply with your answer and show off your brainpower.

Today’s clue: Simple early video game featuring two paddles and a bouncing square.

PGON

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