Chicago Tribune

Column: The best holiday gift for the senior in your life? Time and attention.

In this season of giving and gathering, it's a good time to remember that the best gift of all might be the one that can't be bought, wrapped or overnighted.

Time.

So often we struggle with what to give the people on our lists when maybe all they really need is our attention.

That's not always easy to part with, especially in this day and age of planning and over-scheduling. And yet on the receiving end might be someone whose time on this earth is limited - a senior.

"Past generations took better care of their seniors," said Mary Beth Lunter, a caseworker for PLOWS Council on Aging, a nonprofit that serves Palos, Worth, Orland and Lemont townships.

That may seem harsh, but collectively our generation of adult children is the generation that made daycare a thriving business. We are the inventors of after-school care, the outsourcers of human caretaking.

Of course, many

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