I'd like to start out the new year by telling you a story and by
giving you a small gift. The story is true. The gift is yours to use for yourself and anyone you care about - you may have as many as you'd like to use.

Here's the story:

The week before Christmas I was asked to visit with an elderly lady and the profoundly disabled woman, about age 45, she was caring for. I arrived at the appointed date and time, and no one answered the door or the phone. I could see mail in the box at the front door. Two days later, after making several more calls that went unanswered, I began to feel uneasy. I drove by the house again. More mail in the box, and no answer to the bell.

I knocked on several of the neighbors' doors, but no one knew anything about the two women who lived in the house in question. Knowing that I would feel like a fool if I were wrong, but also knowing that I couldn't ignore a possibly serious problem, I called 911.

Within half an hour of my call emergency responders were able to gain entry to the house. Inside they found what I had hoped they wouldn't...an elderly lady deceased in her bed, and a younger woman still alive, but in terribly bad shape and unable to communicate.

I couldn't answer most of the paramedics' questions. I had not yet met the women, so I didn't have much information about the younger woman's health history. I didn't know her physician's name or what medications she was taking. All this vital information I had planned to gather during my first assessment visit.

The emergency room doctors were gravely hampered by not knowing much more than their patient's name. Most of the critical information they needed to treat this young woman died with her caregiver. Some has since surfaced as distant relatives have been able to fill in some blanks, but the doctors are still working with sketchy information.

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January 1: Baby Boom Birthday - The 18-year period known as the baby boom began on January 1, 1946 (the first full year of peace after World War II). 600,000 more babies were born in 1946 than in 1945. Kathleen Casey, born one second after midnight, was the first baby boomer.

And on that note to all Baby Boomers everywhere, I'd like to
remind you that:

Age is something that doesn't matter, unless you are a cheese.   ~Billie Burke