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Posts in Later Years of Life

Preparing for Aging as a Single Woman

Preparing for Aging as a Single Woman

Aging is a season of loss on many levels. Married women fear losing their spouse or outliving their children. In fact, today there are 13.6 million widows in America, and about 700,000 women become a widow in the U.S. each year. Single women who have never married can fear being alone in the last years of life. In this conversation with Sharon Betters, seventy-two-year old Jerdone Davis frankly shares some of the emotional challenges of anticipating aging alone, including addressing how we can prepare for this season while we are younger and how can we handle the fears of being alone, especially in the last season of our lives. No matter your marital status, Jerdone’s recommendations for preparing for the last season of life will encourage you to be intentional in taking steps to make things easier for loved ones after your death.

Later Years of LifeMARKINC MinistriesNovember 11, 20249thComment

ALS - On My Way Home

ALS - On My Way Home

How do you face each day after a diagnosis of ALS or Lou Gherig’s disease, knowing you will not survive longer than eighteen months – two years? Pastor Dale Meader joins Sharon and Chuck Betters to answer this question and more as he describes how each day reminds him he cannot beat this read more…

Grief, Illness, Later Years of LifeMARKINC MinistriesOctober 14, 20248th 30, 2024Comment

Preparing To Die Well

Preparing To Die Well

Someone has said there are only two sure things in life – death and taxes. While this is meant to be funny, the part about death is true. Each one of us will die, yet…

Later Years of LifeMARKINC MinistriesApril 1, 20248th 30, 2024Comment

Caring For My Husband With Alzheimer's

Caring For My Husband With Alzheimer's

In this conversation with Sharon Betters, Pam describes how a diagnosis has changed the direction of their plans for retirement, how important it is to get an early diagnosis and the way the Lord has grown her faith. Pam’s children told her that in spite of a lifetime of ministry, this season of life is perhaps the most important as she models for them how to love their dad well in what many call the long goodbye.

Later Years of Life, CaregivingMARKINC MinistriesMarch 3, 20242020, 7th 30 Comment

Marriage and Caregiving: Making it Work

Marriage and Caregiving: Making it Work

Growing up we all have a vision of what our life will look like. By the time we reach the last season of life, we might struggle with bitterness or depression or discontent because life was nothing like we expected. Is there a way to trade in the bitterness for contentment and joy? Is it even possible to flourish

Later Years of Life, CaregivingMARKINC MinistriesFebruary 18, 20247th 30, 2020Comment

Flourishing in a Season of Loss

Flourishing in a Season of Loss

We live in an anti-aging culture – subtle and not so subtle messages convince us aging is bad – do everything you can to hang on to youth. But no matter how hard we try, our bodies continue to age. In this conversation with Sharon Betters, Dianne Balch honestly discusses aging in a season of losses, how to grieve those losses but also flourish as we surrender to God’s purposes and walk by faith, even though our hearts ache for what was.

Later Years of LifeMARKINC MinistriesFebruary 4, 20242020, 7th 30Comment

Flourishing in an Anti-Aging Culture

Flourishing in an Anti-Aging Culture

There are many blessings that come with age: retirement, grandchildren, travel, and life experience. Today’s culture, however, marginalizes old age, often portraying it as burdensome and hopeless. Many older women read more…

Later Years of Life, Warrior WomanMARKINC MinistriesAugust 30, 20232020, 7th 30Comment

Caring for Aging Parents Part 2

Caring for Aging Parents Part 2

Kathy Chapell and Elizabeth Turnage join Sharon Betters to talk about how to care for aging parents. We’re going to talk about the challenges of caring for elderly parents. Kathy and Elizabeth share lessons learned as frailty and illness required their parents to make major changes in their living arrangements. They admit they wish they had done some things differently and their transparency will help read more…

Later Years of Life, CaregivingMARKINC MinistriesAugust 1, 20232020, 7th 30Comment

The Legacy of Story Telling Part 1

The Legacy of Story Telling Part 1

Kathy Chapell and Elizabeth Turnage join Sharon Betters to talk about how sharing our stories are a means of passing on a legacy of faith, even if our story is filled with disappointments and potholes.. They start with Kathy sharing from her book, The Great Iowa Road Trip – Journey to Memories where Kathy has recorded not only precious read more…

Later Years of Life, EmotionsMARKINC MinistriesJuly 24, 20232020, 7th 30Comment

Caregiver: Who Cares for You?

Caregiver: Who Cares for You?

Marissa Bondurant joins Sharon Betters to share how her caregiving journey started when her family received a devastating diagnosis for her four-year-old daughter. Not only does she have comfort to offer caregivers, but her story through the land of childhood cancer will also encourage us. Marissa takes listeners deep into her journey of caring for not just one child but two children diagnosed read more…

Later Years of Life, Emotions, CaregivingMARKINC MinistriesJune 13, 20236th 30Comment

Organizing Your Life and Legacy

Organizing Your Life and Legacy

“A silver wave is coming,” says author and speaker Elizabeth Turnage. Baby boomers are facing the hardest challenge of their lives – how to die well. In this conversation with Sharon Betters, Elizabeth challenges listeners to take steps now to make it easier for loved ones after you die. Elizabeth shares how her dad died without any intentional preparation of affairs or instructions for his children. She compares his response to read more…

Later Years of LifeMARKINC MinistriesMarch 12, 20236th 30, 2020Comment

Retiring Well

Retiring Well

“I’ve worked hard all my life, this time it’s all about me!” Is it ok to pursue pleasure that was unattainable before retirement? And what if unexpected changes in our health make it impossible to do what we want. How do we deal with disappointment and discontentment read more…

Later Years of LifeMARKINC MinistriesJune 13, 20226th 30, 2020Comment

Early Onset Dementia, A Mother’s Journey

Early Onset Dementia, A Mother’s Journey

What if your kind, gentle adult son started exhibiting bizarre behavior, so bizarre his wife got a restraining order and he ended up in prison? Our guest in this conversation, Robin, knows this terror as she lost her son little by little to an undiagnosed disease read more…

Parenting, Special Needs, Illness, Later Years of Life, CaregivingMARKINC MinistriesMay 13, 20226th 30, 2020Comment

Singleness, Living Faithfully

Singleness, Living Faithfully

Is singleness a gift or a curse? If you’re single because you never married, divorced or widowed - are you just in a waiting room, marking time until you meet the right person, or is singleness a place filled with opportunities you would not have if married? Is it wrong to pray for a spouse? How do you respond when well-meaning friends say hurtful things like, “I don’t understand why some guy hasn’t snatched

Faith, Relationships, Emotions, Later Years of LifeMARKINC MinistriesApril 2, 20222020, 6th 30Comment

Motherhood, Shame & Guilt

Motherhood, Shame & Guilt

Barbara Juliani and Jane Anne Wilson join Sharon Betters to talk about those feelings every mother experiences at one time or another. This conversation follows an interview with Barbara about prodigal children. Barbara and her father Jack Miller co-authored Come Back, Barbara, a raw and transparent story of Barbara’s rebellion against her parents and their faith and her journey “back home”. Whenever a child rebels or disappoints

Parenting, Emotions, Later Years of LifeMARKINC MinistriesJuly 7, 20212020, 5th 30Comment

Flourishing in Every Season of Life

Flourishing in Every Season of Life

Carol was eighty-three years old at the time of the interview. Carol travels the world continuing the work of the organization her husband started, Equipping Pastors. Surely Carol is a model of flourishing in old age as she regularly gets on a plane in order to spend hours teaching about marriage in less than optimum circumstances. But is traveling the world at eighty-three years of age the only way to

Later Years of LifeMARKINC MinistriesJanuary 1, 20212020, 5th 30Comment

Dementia with Dr. John Dunlop

Dementia with Dr. John Dunlop

In this interview Sharon Betters asks Dr. John Dunlop, author of Finding Grace in the Face of Dementia, to define dementia, the stages of dementia, what it is like to care for a loved one with dementia, and more. He reminds us that every person is made in the image of God and that truth needs to be the grid through which we view those with dementia and the kind of care we give.

Later Years of Life, CaregivingMARKINC MinistriesDecember 5, 20192019, 4th 30Comment

Ever Growing, Ever Green: A Conversation with Ruth Auffarth

Ever Growing, Ever Green: A Conversation with Ruth Auffarth

Unless we die young, each of us will experience aging. Is it possible to be “ever growing ever green” as we age? Is sixty really the new fifty? What does it mean to flourish in old age? What if we don’t have energy to do all those wonderful things we did when we were younger? When should we start preparing for old age? Is there anything glorious about growing old?

Later Years of LifeMARKINC MinistriesOctober 5, 20182018, 3rd 30Comment

The Grace Land Of Marriage And Disability: A Conversation With Joan And Jerry Borton

The Grace Land Of Marriage And Disability: A Conversation With Joan And Jerry Borton

Jerry was born with Cerebral Palsy and Joan had worked with people who have disabilities throughout her life, so she thought she knew what she was signing up for when they were married. In this transparent interview, Joan and Jerry share the challenges of marriage and disability. But you might be surprised at what they describe as some of their greatest challenges. Listen as Joan and Jerry offer hope to people with disabilities, to the parents of children with disabilities, and to others as well.

Special Needs, Relationships, Later Years of Life, CaregivingMARKINC MinistriesFebruary 9, 20182018, 2nd 30Comment