Watching sunsets

Suddenly, it is twilight. A  stoop matches our gray hair and bifocals. They say we’re the elderly folk we used to zip past unheeding. Where did  those  years  go?

No more bolting out of bed mornings, writes  Conchita Razon in “The Fear of Aging.” ( Inquirer/April 14 )  The process is now protracted:  from slow tentative roll to slow tentative steps. “We’re on the downside of the mountain, coasting towards our final days,” she quotes Omega Institute’s  Elizabeth Lesser. “Wrinkles and double chins  are smoke screens for what we’re afraid of—mortality.”

That  was the focus of  April’s conference on  “Ageing in Asia Pacific: Balancing the State and  Family”  in Cebu  City . This Association of Asian Social Science Research Councils’ 20th  biennial conference considered  “myths about the elderly” to new scientific tools, like “ALE.”

ALE?  Come  again.

“The concept of active life expectancy or ‘ALE,’ is relatively new” here, explains Grace Cruz of the University of the Philippines (UP) Population Institute and researchers  Yashushiko Sato and Joesfina Nativid. But  “lolos” and “lolas”  will account  for 7.8 percent of the population  when President  Benigno Aquino III’s  term ends.

Come 2040, about  19.6 million will be  what  President Clinton dubbed as “near elderly.” Some  will be justices, physicians, even Cebu Daily News columnists. But many will be in nursing homes, begging or huddled in slums.

“Don’t complain about growing old,” Justice Earl Warren wrote. “Many people don’t have that privilege.” Two of my brothers didn’t. But  “success in adding years to life does not necessarily mean adding life to years.” Longer lives can peter out in crippling disability. Yet, little is known of “ALE.”

A prevailing myth claims that the elderly are dependent on their children. At the Cebu conference, family and state debated on who had primary responsibility in caring for the elderly, Sun.star’s Rebelander. Basilan reported. Many of the elderly pitch in for children and grandchildren. Some double as guardians when a parent leaves as Overseas Foreign Worker. Failing health and inadequate pensions bug many.

Indeed, the tally of household headed by “oldies,” belonging to the poorest 10 percent of the population has risen since 1997, says a paper by UP economist Dennis Mapa. A young dependent (14 years old or below) jacks up the probability that the elderly-headed household will be paupered by 9 percentage points. Addressing the slow dip in population growth rates is critical.

Swelling ranks of the elderly imply a corresponding increase in the number with disabilities. This future scenario elevates health, particularly health expectancy, as a central issue in policy formulation, Cruz and team note in an earlier study,  “Active Life Expectancy Among Older Filipinos.”

The number of older people unable to perform once routine everyday  chores—from bathing, reading, using a cell phone or going on Internet—has  implications at various levels. Demand for buffed up government health budgets  is one.

The Aquino regime has collected more revenues. But there are competing demands on the health peso from the younger sector of the .population. The young are the majority.

“The burden of care for the elderly will have to be managed by the family,” Cruz notes. Traditional family structures are changing  rapidly. A major factor is overseas as well as rural-to-urban movements. “Labor migration eroded the ability of the family to care for its older members.”

Women are traditional care givers for the elderly. Often, older people take on surrogate parental roles for grandchildren whose parents migrate, towards ill-prepared cities or abroad. OFW  jobs  for women outstrip those for  men.

Poverty cripples a family’s ability to care for  elder members. Out of every 100 Filipinos, 34 scrape below poverty lines. There are more widows than widowers. Measures to address women’s  needs are urgent as many will  linger  longer in disability before death.  “Because I could not stop for death,/  He kindly stopped for me,” Emily Dickenson wrote.

Some believe that  many children is the answer,  Razon wrote: “When I grow old, they‘ll take care of me.” For some, this is wonderfully true. And yet, many people with children spend their twilight years alone. I know  many older parents who, if they get lucky, may get a phone call  or  text once a week.

“Filipinos are generally known for their strong filial obligation. (But) poverty can erode the middle generation’s capacity to provide economic and health assistance for the older generation. Savings in the bank determines level of “inter-generational support.”The less-endowed  are less likely to be involved in kin support.

Both the number and proportion of healthy years relative to total remaining life years dwindle with age for men and women. Functional impairment emerges as a reality. These will result in significant lifestyle restrictions. Unless policy measures are enacted, the elderly will skid into social isolation, poor  nutrition and overall decrease in quality of life.

In her  poem  “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings,”  poet  Maya Angelou writes: “The antidote… is to take full responsibility for yourself—for the time you take up and the space you occupy… Start by speaking to people rather than walking by them like they’re stones that don’t matter.”

After chatting with our grandchildren on Skype, the wife and I sometimes watch twilight set in. Did you notice those sunsets? They’re   never the same twice.