About ten years ago, my husband and I were part of a testing
group. The group consisted of normal people older than 70 and those with Alzheimers
and other such conditions. The last results I have are from 2012. These tests
were fun. I used to call it game day and this happened once a month. I will say
I went from average to well above average on some of the tests. My husband and
I stopped going when he needed dialysis and wasn’t available to do the tests. I
went once alone, though.
What does this have to do with a long phone interview I did?
The reason I was called was because this goup of researchers at the Nathan
Kline Institute were basing their interviews on the Covid virus and the effect
it was having on people. They had done a study of younger people and thought
they should look at the elderly. They called and asked if I would participate.
“I told them yes.
When the interviewer called, the first thing she asked was
about my emotional state with having to stay at home and not seeing people. I
told her, I was rather unique as I had a career I was pursuing and that I wrote
every day, usually from nine to five. That sort of threw her for a moment.
There were about 7 sections of questions with a variety of
ways to answer. Some sections were yes and no, some wanted you to rate from one
to I believe five on a scale and some wanted longer answers.
When we finished, she said my answers were very different in
many areas that both the younger and older people, especially in the section
that dealt with death of others and of one’s self. Not sure why the difference
unless it’s because I’m rather a realist and I had recently dealt with the death
of a loved one. I remember when she asked me if I ever got angry and of course
I do, but she said in the last two weeks. My answer was yes. This was
concerning my husband’s pension which he arranged that I would receive after
his death. I have been filling out papers since the first week in February. The
last form I sent in hopefully is the last one I’ll have to do. The kicker was,
If you don’t hear from us in 60 days contact us. That makes this the middle of
July.
At the end of the session she asked if I would like to play
games at the institute again. I said I would since I’m curious to see if or how
much I’ve deteriorated in eight years.
