A Bench and a Tree

• Ask your community to adopt an online donor program to make it easier for people or organizations to donate senior-friendly benches and trees to our parks. It will help make nature accessible to everyone, regardless of age.
• Purchase Miracle Within Small Things: A Mother and Daughter’s Journey Through Loss and Aging by Jane McKinney and Mary McKSchmidt. Click Here to Purchase All proceeds fund “A Bench and a Tree”–an initiative designed to provide shaded, senior-friendly benches to public spaces in Michigan communities.
• Ask Mary to speak at your organization’s next meeting. For a small stipend, she shares how a mother and daughter discover nature’s power to inspire, to soothe, even to heal, as together they face the challenges of aging. Stipends fund “A Bench and a Tree.”

By 2050, one in four people in the United States will be over the age of sixty. According to a 2007 report issued by the National Institute on Aging and the National Institutes of Health, between 2005 and 2030, the eighty-five-and-over population is projected to increase 151 percent across the globe compared to twenty-one percent for those under sixty-five. While COVID-19 is not reflected in the numbers, chronic diseases such as dementia, Alzheimer’s, cancer, cardiovascular disease, arthritis, and diabetes are likely causes of death in those over eighty-five. Such diseases often require long-term care that consumes public and family resources. Worse, the diseases gnaw at the mental and emotional health of seniors and family members. 

But nature has the power to heal. 

An increasing body of research suggests regular contact with nature can improve short-term memory loss, reduce inflammation, recharge the immune system, diminish a sense of isolation, and lower the overall risk of early death. And it doesn’t take that much time. According to one study, just two hours a week can make a difference. 

Can communities make access to nature easier for the growing senior population? 

When Mary and her mother began their outdoor adventures, her mother could walk unassisted for a long mile on any type of path. Over time, she transitioned from walking independently to arm-in-arm, to cane, to walker. Uneven surfaces and cracks matter. So does the slope of the path. Grass, sand or woodchip trails are no longer a possibility; asphalt or concrete is essential. Fear of falling haunts them both. 

Over twenty-three public and private parks are within ten miles of her mother’s apartment, making access to nature possible. But it’s not always easy. Favorite spaces boil down to paths, benches, trees, and safety. Her mother needs more frequent pauses and comfortable benches on which to rest, preferably benches shaded by trees that protect eyes sensitive to light and paper-thin skin susceptible to cancer; benches near trees that open the door to sensory stimulation created by leaves that flutter, squirrels that dart, birds that chatter, and a vast array of colors and textures. Research points to the importance of placing benches every ten yards for a senior-friendly park. While Mary’s never counted the steps, she knows fewer between benches is better with each passing year. 

As the senior population mushrooms in our communities, it is to our collective advantage to solicit their input, prioritize their needs and find ways to create a more nature-friendly environment—in the home and out. And while the research shows nature can have a positive effect on one’s health, for Mary and her mother there was more. Nature brought them together on their respective journeys to find inner peace, to live with joy. Such journeys do not stop when one turns sixty-five. If anything, they become more urgent.  What better way to share those journeys than on a bench under a tree?