Marci Alboher, an expert on workplace trends and writer of the excellent Working the New Economy blog, interviewed me last week for a piece called Will you work when you’re eighty? on Yahoo Shine. Alboher writes about her 94-year-old grandmother, who had to read about blogging in Reader’s Digest to be convinced that her granddaughter’s profession actually existed. Describing her grandmother as “always looking back at the period in her life when she felt useful and productive,” Alboher says she plans to work until she drops and was inspired by the story of my in-laws, Bill and Ruth Stein.
The Steins are gearing up for yet another Gift Show in August, but their bookselling business has really been whacked by the recession. Orders are way down, several big publishers have had to let them go, and Ruth’s worried about how she’s going to keep feeling productive — precisely what’s missing from Alboher’s grandmother’s life. She’d be happy to work in a shop but knows her walker would get in the way. The weak economy and weak spine make for a double whammy, one that I’m hoping Ruth can overcome with the brains and perseverance that have always stood her in good stead.
Alboher heard about Staying Vertical from my Council on Contemporary Families colleague, Deborah Siegel of Girl With Pen fame – thanks, Deborah.