ELDER ORPHANS
(Ages / Stages / Sages)
SUNDAY BRUNCH - June 4th, 2023
✅ PLEASE RSVP ✅
This is a supportive brunch club for various ages, stages, and sages.
We are trying to nurture the aging process and plan for future care needs.
🔮
What is an Elder Orphan?
Otherwise known as a SoloAger.
Although many of us are not technically Elder Orphans, some of us may be at higher risk to become one or be the caregiver to some.
WHO
Maybe you identify as one or some of the following:
solo ager, childless ager, solo parent, poly partnered, of blended family, a queer body, lower income artist, divorcing or divorced, grew up in an orphanage, have limited, distent, or an estranged family, are not close with your adoptive parents, you have less access to inherited forms of financial wealth or privilege, you are widowed, in midlife or later, lost your family tragically, have unbearable debt, have a chronic illness, or you are the caregiver to someone with a progressive disability. Perhaps you have creative solutions and dreams for fostering a more integrated supportive aging community.
WHAT
This brunch will be a skillshare thinktank facilitated by Kelly Nesbitt. The group will gather a couple times a year and have affinity offshoots (see bigger picture below). We will have tangible homework assignments that we help to hold each other accountable for. Over the next year the emphasis will be for each us to create a living will, advanced directive, and assign a power of attorney for ourselves - or revise your current documents.
You don’t need to prepare any of that for our first brunch. You are welcome to come even if you already have these things in place, maybe you want to revise them, or simply want to connect with others.
Personal information shared in the group remains private. We will meet in comfy clothing over tea/potluck, in a ⭕️ circle sharing style, with notebooks in hand. If there’s time/space - we will open with a guided death meditation and close with a jingle.
BIGGER PICTURE
Elder Orphans (Ages, Stages, Sages) will also serve as a network ☂️ whereby folks are encouraged to create affinity and subgroups such as budgeting, financial planning and investment groups, creative poly planning groups, solo childless agers, caregiver support groups, senior/elder law groups, insurance groups, healthcare groups, aging in place, perimenopause/menopause groups, brain/cognitive groups, death, dying, grieving groups, home modifications, creative housing groups, intergenerational communities, starting your own business groups, or [insert idea] ….
CARE
BRUNCH HOUSE RULES
While you are encouraged to share openly and freely about your personal aging process, please keep in mind that folks are coming from varied backgrounds, please try to read the room with care and make no assumptions. Respectfully share from your own personal experiences, create balanced spaciousness for one person to speak at a time. Pause before you speak, especially if you have already spoken. No unsolicited advice.
The group will utilize a playful gesture if someone speaks out of turn or interrupts, such as placing a hand over our mouths 🤭 to indicate the behavior to the interrupter. This is not to shame, blame, nor dwell on the behavior - but simply to rewire our awareness and listening skills with a splash of levity in a nonverbal way. There will be unstructured time scheduled at the end to talk amongst ourselves, share books, ideas, resources and exchange contact info.
MEETING NEEDS
note taker (?)
time keeper (?)
kitchen clean up crew
big dry erase board to borrow (?)
consider GF, Vegan potluck options (everyone)
notebook, pen (everyone)
bring books📚, business cards, handouts to share for resource table (anyone)
PLACE
TBA
🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼
A FEW BOOKS 📚 and RESOURCES
Get Your Shit Together (GYST)
https://getyourshittogether.org
Ai-Jen Poo's book The Age of Dignity.
https://thenewpress.com/books/age-of-dignity
What Fresh Hell is This?
Guide to perimenopause and menopause by the award-winning nonbinary sex ed/health educator and author of S.E.X
Financial Checklist
https://thebudgetnista.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Financial-Wholeness-Checklist.pdf
MODERNIST FINANCIAL’s money resources (PDX)
https://modernistfinancial.com/referrals-resources
Oregon Advanced Directive Form (OHSU)
https://www.ohsu.edu/sites/default/files/2022-06/2020-Advance-Directives-Form-WEB-ENG.pdf
Instructions for completing Advanced Directive form
https://www.ohsu.edu/sites/default/files/2022-06/2020-Advance-Directives-Instructions-WEB-ENG.pdf