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PART SEVEN

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Late Adulthood

What emotions do you expect when you read about late adulthood? Sadness, fear, depression, resignation, sympathy, sorrow? Expect instead surprise and joy. You will learn that most older adults are active, alert, and self-sufficient; that dramatic loss of memory and logic (“senility”) is unusual; and that many are independent and happy.

This does not mean you should anticipate mindless contentment. Earlier personality and social connections continue; the complexities of life are evident. Joy is mixed with sorrow. Poverty, loneliness, and chronic illness are difficult. However, most older adults, most of the time, overcome such difficulties.

If you doubt this, you are not alone. Late adulthood, more than any other part of life, is a magnet for misinformation. Ageism may be worse than other -isms, because everyone experiences it if they live long enough, but almost no one is well prepared.