Front-Wave Boomers: Growing (Very) Old, Staying Connected, and Reimagining Aging

Boomers are heading into (very) old age following a pandemic, a time of overt ageism and shamefully deficient eldercare. The front wave, now in their seventies, are on the brink of life changes that will be challenging for everyone family, friends, and for the health care system too.

Recognizing the dire need to tackle these changes, journalist and sociologist Gillian Ranson, a front-wave boomer herself, investigates what they are doing to prepare for old age.

Whether an elder orphan living in subsidized housing, a busy grandparent doing daycare pickups, a small business owner phasing into retirement, or a wife learning to cope with a husbands dementia, they all share one thing they need intimate, caring social ties to other people.

Just as the baby boomer generation transformed life for teenagers and youth in the 1960s, they now have a chance to create a better way to grow old. Their stories hold lessons for us all.