Quote:
Originally Posted by BarryRX
A very serious situation. I was 63 years old when I moved here and received my Florida drivers license. I won't have to renew that license until I am 73 years old. If the past 10 years are any indication, I can expect some significant changes in my eyesight, reflexes, and most importantly the ability to make quick decisions about complicated traffic patterns such as traffic circles and multilane intersections. Of course, if I was 83 years old, I wouldn't have to test again until I was 93. Perhaps, as we age, we should be required to test more often. I may get "flamed" for suggesting this. One can only imagine the loss of independence that comes with the loss of driving privileges, especially in a setting as spread out as The Villages.
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My late FIL went in at age 90 to renew his Maryland DL. My wife went with him as he had fairly advanced Alzheimer's. Every question that the examiner asked, he turned to Betsy and asked her what he should say. Betsy would tell him and he would repeat it. They renewed his license.
Betsy took him in because he was obsessing about renewing it. Of course, Betsy kept misplacing his keys... Car stayed in the driveway.
That having been said, one of the saddest days that I've had was moving my parents into assisted living in VA. At one point in dealing with all of the paperwork, my (still mentally alert) dad finally cracked and raged about "you too away my house, you took away my car, you took away all of my pills and now you tell me that I can't decide when I'm going to eat breakfast!"
We're all going to get older (hopefully) here. All I can say is that we moved here because we saw lots of happy laughing people. I always figured that I could probably deal with driving a golf cart at 20 mph a lot longer than I will be able to drive a car at 70 mph...