At Home

What is more enjoyable than spending a Saturday at the park with your family? Walking through the woods and enjoying the warm spring air seems like the perfect way to spend a weekend. Add in pulling invasive weeds and it describes a recent weekend I spent with my daughter.

Well, I hope you read last week’s column. If not, let me briefly explain: we all have pasts, pasts that have perhaps helped us and incidences from those pasts that have hindered us in our adult years. Those instances may continue to have negative effects on our lives unless we learn how to begin “shedding” those things, which we may have struggled with in the years before emerging into adulthood.

Dear Savvy Senior,
What tips can you recommend to help retirees guard against identity theft when traveling? My sister and her husband had their identity stolen while on vacation last year, and I want to make sure I’m protecting myself on my trip to Europe next month.
Paranoid Pam

Dear Pam,
Most people don’t realize that when you travel, your risk of identity theft increases. Here are a few simple steps you can take to protect yourself while you’re away.

My past, your past — everybody has one. You grew up in a family that you may consider to be normal or healthy, but many have grown up in a family that would be known as subnormal, abnormal or, at best, dysfunctional.
Well, now that you are an adult, do those childhood experiences continue to have a negative effect on you? Maybe this column, and the one following on May 8, will help you or someone you know develop a way, or several ways, of not letting it continue.