Great Man! Santo

Belated 96th  birthday to you Santo. Your lived experiences you  shared with me for the past 10 years will be treasured.
God Bless You!

"Aging Gracefully"

"I am 82 now but I am still feeling that I am doing very well!" What a positive way of expressing as this man experienced "aging gracefully" at this stage of his life. Extract taken from my conversation with this man today Oct 9m 2012

Help Needed for this proposed project...

PROPOSED PROJECT OF DOCUMENTARY VIDEO – DVD Format

 

Growing Old in SABAH BORNEO

Interview will be done in three different languages, Kadazandusun, Bahasa Malaysia and English.

 

            Aging is a word that most people are unwilling to confront and even many seniors live in denial of it. This Video will explore from the realities of physical, emotional, psychological, relational, medical and economical aspects in a developing State of Sabah, Borneo. Voices of participants will be heard of how they will describe and will interpret their experiences of growing old. What exactly is the healthy way to grow old? Is age a disease to be battled or a beautiful stage of life to be embraced and celebrated? How do look at aging positively?

 

Producer & director, Rev. Dr. Peter Abas. Dist.: Rhythmic Tranquility Production, DVD 30 minutes.

A State of Emotional Pain

A State of Emotional Pain

     My heart is still longing for him (her late husband). Loneliness is sad and emotionally unpleasant. -Josephine- (Extract of Doctoral Dissertation, Abas 2007)

...voice of an elderly individual...

"aiso guno masi nodi sabab aiso tanak ku id kanu gumopi dogo" said an elderly lady (age 79 year old) - there is no meaning to live because none of my children can take care of me-

I heard this from this woman, two days ago... 

Inner feelings...

"I think that once you start feeling some of these aging ailments, I think they compound it, because then you realize that you are not able to do some of the things you like to do, like walking inthe mall, for instance (Line 154-158 of 1 st interview." Extract from Doctoral Dissertation, Abas 2007.

"Who am I"?

Often I heard and even spoke to elderly persons who fsaid, "Who am I?" If you further ask him/her to elaborate this sentence, he/she will tell you a lots about it!
"Who am I?" Often this connated to negative feelings/thoughts of being "OLD" and "USELESS".

Mary Jane was one of my many elderly individuals who journeyed with me in my program "Aging Gracefully" in Rochester, NY, she is in her ninetees now.
Gof bless you Mary Jane.

We need to assure and affirm our elderly individuals that they are still special and can contribute to the society. Are we able to convince our Borneon seniors and elderly individual to be more positive in seeing this Slogan "Aging Gracefully?"