Growing older brings many thoughts of ＂I wish I knew that before＂ This book provides information to help us age as well as possible. Surprisingly, our feelings do not age. Pleasure and contentment interface loneliness, loss, fears and sorrow. At a time when life is thought easier, new problems and situations that are challenging arise. Four stages of aging include the initiation to aging at about fifty years of age, changes in life following retirement, a gradual acceptance of being older, and the final years of eighty-five and older.

My interest in psychology was stimulated by observing the relationships that my six siblings had with our parents. After receiving a doctorate from Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, I have taught and practiced clinical in several universities, ending up at Stanford University School of Medicine. Retirement enlivened an interest in sharing aging experiences as I faced them (now 95 years old). There was little literature on the emotional challenges of aging; we know our emotional life does not age. Feelings become more complex, better understood, and increasingly positive for the person.