I for one, am so appreciative of the elders that have survived a long life. I think of how many times, in my relatively short life, I have escaped the fingers of death and how my parents died relatively young and younger. To sit with an elder who has live 90+ years, that is an accomplishment to be admired. I respect them and love them and have learned to just listen. In my opinion, the worse thing we can do is warehouse them away because maybe they are a little frail or slow or forgetful.
I have seen with my own eyes, how just sitting and being with some of our elderly citizens just brings them back to the land of the living. I believe boredom and a lack of connection to other people is the death knell to this population.