When a nurse looks at an elderly person, he or she views history. Both literally and figuratively, our elders contain within them the evidence of their own decades of life and those of their community. Given the heterogeneity (Weinert & Timiras, 2003) of experience and health issues that older patients bring to any nursing encounter, it is critical that their medical personnel regard them with as broad, insightful, and bias-free a perspective as possible. This applies to specific issues such as isolation, as well as to their overall quality of life. The person-centered approach to care (Current Theories, 2011) (McCance, McCormack, & Dewing, 2011) offers one useful guide to nursing interactions and interventions (McCormack, 2004 ). Elderly persons arrive at their senior years with a wide range of experience and exposure. These can affect how they function, and perceive their lives. For example, consider potential exposure (possibly unknown) to carcinogens/pathogens, e.g., asbestos, tobacco, or tuberculosis. Consider, too, the impact of a sedentary or physically demanding job on long-term musculoskeletal health and cardiac fitness. Seniors may have had consistent medical care, or almost none. Arriving at their later years, they may be surrounded by a flock of relatives or have no family anywhere nearby. They may have a hectic volunteer life or be couch-potatoes. Every such difference may affect their dignity and comfort in old age. Each such unique feature should be considered by nursing personnel to provide best assistance towards optimal aging. In achieving this goal, nursing personnel may be hampered by societal stereotypes, often reinforced by the popular media. Ageist images seem widespread in media, in the workplace, and in the very structures of our communities. Miniscule label typeface and complex packaging baffle anyone with limited vision and dexterity. Staircases without railings, poor public lighting, shopping and services located an obligatory car ride away from most housing; these thoughtless choices send an unwelcoming message to seniors and often consign them to admittedly pleasant-seeming but sequestered enclaves (Wick & Zanni, 2009 ) or institutions (Bookman, 2007). The elderly are portrayed as dithering, insane, or selfish, in movies and television programs such as Sanford and Son, All in the Family, Golden Girls, and Throw Momma from the Train. Advertisements often stereotype the elderly as either sick or helpless (“I’ve fallen and I can’t get up” (LifeALert, 2002)). The workplace and our role in it are important determinants of self-worth in our culture, which also often exclude the elderly (Peretti & Wilson, 1975) (Phelan, 2008) (Perry, 2010). Retirees may feel left out in many subtle and not so subtle ways. In the United States, one notes anecdotally that one asks a newly introduced individual, “What do you do?” and the answer expected is not gardening, painting, bird-watching or walking unless these are professional, paid activities. As another example, most volunteer organizations meet in “non-working” hours, excluding the elderly who may, for mobility or safety reasons, prefer not to travel by dark or at night. Since a retiree’s income growth is necessarily limited, there is a subtle status shift. Financial advisors tend not to target retirees in the same way that they target potential customers with many years of increa