BRG Legal, LLC

10/03/2026

All set up and waiting to meet you today at the Community Wellness Fair on the York Village Green. We’ll be here until noon and have a fantastic collection of local businesses and organizations looking to help you take care of yourself. 😉

10/03/2026

Have I mentioned recently how awesome my clients are?!? My client brought these in yesterday before I navigated a family meeting with mom, dad and two sons. They are beautiful and HUGE! 💐
Seriously, it is so humbling to know that my clients come in to have the hardest of conversations, trust me to guide and support them thru the stress and confusion, and want to bring ME flowers for the meeting!
I love my work and love being there for others while they navigate growing older, preparing ahead of time and helping to make the hard conversations easier! 🥰❤️

10/01/2026

So glad to see such a wonderful community organization picking up this need! Thank you YCSA York Community Service Association for all you do!! ❤️

🎉🎈Today’s the day! YCSA RIDE is open and now taking calls for transportation from York residents! We are SO excited to be able to offer this important service to our neighbors! 207 902-8869 Please note that the number is different than the YCSA main number. 🎉🎈

10/01/2026

Happy ME month!!
And by that, I mean me, as in this is my favorite month and the month I’ll turn 51! But, I also mean ME as in Maine! We are so lucky as a state and let me tell you why everyone needs to know this…
This week I was in Portland for Maine Council on Aging’s (for which I am honored to serve) 13th Annual Change AGEnt Summit. Never have I been so excited to start my birth month than after the dinner and all-day presentations I enjoyed! It was a fantastic collection of Maine organizations, businesses, teachers, social workers, lawyers, community members, volunteers and even one or two aging adults 😉 And our entire purpose for gathering was to discuss how to age well! Well, who wouldn’t want to start celebrating their birth month like that?! Yes, I take the WHOLE month!!! 😊

Seriously, who wouldn’t??

You know what else got me energized and excited this week? The realization that I get to grow older with THESE PEOPLE!! How lucky am I???

I came home from the Summit last night and, in a span of an hour, I had one group of girlfriends invite me out for live music to celebrate (Zach Nugent’s Dead Set at Jimmy’s on 10/9, for all my Deadheads out there 😊) and another girlfriend called to suggest we grab a hotel room now that it’s offseason and have a sleepover! I felt so loved and cared for with those invitations and more reasons to be excited for this month!!

We should ALL feel so loved and cared for!!

And let me tell you how many people in ME are working hard to make that happen! It is such an amazing and uplifting experience to be surrounded by people of all ages, backgrounds, professions, and experiences but who share the common goal of just wanting people to be able to live out their lives with their best health, community, connection and positivity!

I remind my clients that it is proven you live 7.5 more healthy years of life when you have a positive attitude and outlook on aging.
How are you talking about aging? ARE YOU? I promise, it can be a fun conversation if you let it be… 😉

Listen to those around you and how you’re talking about getting older, call out negative comments, ‘getting old’ talk, and try to surround yourself with people who will support, encourage, and embrace aging for all the fantastic wonders ahead!
Save the Date for MCOA’s Summit next year (9/30/27 in Bangor), volunteer for the organizations in your community trying to make a positive difference in the lives of older adults, get out and get social, whatever that looks like for you, and form some new connections. You know I’ll say it – get some friends together for some live music (or go by yourself and make new friends!) or call a friend on the phone.

I’m gonna be over here embracing the privilege of getting another year older and celebrating the heck out it!!

Happy October ya'll!! 💕

09/24/2026

I think this weekend will be a good one for all those long-ignored inside projects you ignored over the summer...I know I have a few!

Hope to see everyone (but the rain!) on October 3rd!

Due to the weather predicted for this weekend, we've had to make the difficult decision to postpone our Wellness Festival until next weekend, October 3rd. We hope you can join us!

09/12/2026

Excited to be a part of this gathering of local businesses dedicated to helping you take care of yourself! You know I include planning as an important part to that equation! Come say hi!

04/23/2026

U.S. systems are designed for and still operate based on life expectancy projections from the 1950s. Today people are living 30 years longer, into our 80s, 90s and 100s, and we're not prepared for our new longevity. This opinion piece in Fortune draws on the Milken Institute's report Longevity Ready: A Systems Approach to Aging Well at Home, the Longevity Preparedness Index from John Hancock and MIT AgeLab, as well as findings from the Manulife John Hancock Financial Resilience and Longevity Report to define the important steps individuals, communities, corporations and policy makers need to take to address this 30-year gap and ensure we can all age well at home. https://bit.ly/4vAaMzZ

04/16/2026

Ok, who can relate?

I had back to back consults today and addressed this exact issue. Please have the uncomfortable talk! You or honest information are not the burdens. The burden is the chaotic crisis that results when the conversations are not had soon enough!

Even a therapist who specializes in family dynamics day in and day out struggles to understand one peculiar habit that seems to be nearly universal among those in the 60 and above age bracket.

Mary Beth Somich, LCMHC, who has been a family therapist for 10 years, recently posted a TikTok that struck a nerve. The caption reads, "Help me understand this Boomer parenting behavior."

"There is this thing that Boomer parents consistently do that I have to admit, I truly do not understand. I would really like to understand this, as I think it would really help my Gen X and Millennial adult clients."

In her experience, Somich says, older adults tend to withhold important medical information from their adult children, sometimes until way after the fact. It often comes wrapped in a cushioning phrase like, "We just didn't want to worry you."

In the video, she acts out a few scenarios that are all too familiar to many adults with Boomer parents: Mom springing it on you out of the blue that Dad had "open heart surgery yesterday." Or one of your parents suddenly disclosing that "Grandma has been on life support for a week."

"These are adult children now. These are adults." She says her adult clients come into her practice after moments like this feeling upset, sad, and even betrayed. In short, they're far more upset than they would have been hearing the hard news sooner.

"If the idea here was to spare your adult child some anxiety, it has backfired," she says. But the question still remains: Why do they do it?

The video racked up over a million views on social media, and viewers had no shortage of things to say about this frustrating phenomenon.

Theories abound as to why Boomers tend to withhold health-related updates. Some called out the behavior as manipulative or selfish:

"They don't want to deal with our emotions. Surely you know that"

"Emotional immaturity is likely a part of it - avoiding having to acknowledge their own distress about it and also avoiding experiencing their kids’ distress. Sweep it under the rug until you can’t not trip over it."

"They will give you every health update of the neighbor down the street that you don’t even know but won’t tell you when they have cancer. Then they make you feel bad that you didn’t know because you don’t come around enough."

"It’s a form of punishment and control. 'If we cared, we would have asked.'"

Several people theorized that it's hard for parents of any age to think of their own kids as adults, so the urge to protect and shield them is tough to break even once they're truly grown. Others were more empathetic, recalling that Boomers weren't exactly raised with a lot of tender affection and care in the '50s and '60s.

"Boomers had f-ed up parents and so were their parents. Etc. There was no counseling, no mental health talk. It was non existent. OUR feelings were dismissed and communication skills were not taught to us. we were taught to brush everything under the rug and I think all of this is reflection of how we react to things now."

"Late Boomer here (Gen Jones). Our parents kept everything from us. No talking about money, relationships, or coping skills. We never learned how to relate to our adult children unless we taught ourselves."

Parents in the '60s and thereabouts were heavy on authority and much lighter on warmth than parents today. The phrase, "Children should be seen and not heard," was a common refrain of the day, so it's no wonder they might have trouble opening up and communicating.

Experts say the truth is really a bit of both: A genuine (if misguided desire) to protect or not "burden" adult children, mixed with difficulties in being vulnerable as a result of their upbringing. See what licensed clinical psychologists have to say below.

04/09/2026

What makes you, “you”? What do you do each day that makes you who you are? What’s important to you, no matter how small or seemingly insignificant, that moves you, motivates you, touches your soul, makes you feel most connected with who you are and, without which, would somehow render you less “you”?

That’s my favorite question to ask clients as we’re working through their estate planning documents.

We do things daily which makes us who we are, somehow shapes the space we take up in this world and, without which we wouldn’t be the same. Yet, how often do we really think about all those things in our daily life we take for granted?

For me, it’s music! Music and the love of it is just integral to my very being. I inherited a love of music from both my parents, grew up on concerts, musicals, and symphony performances and, for a brief stint in my childhood, tried to be a musician. I wake up to music, shower and get ready for my day with music, journal and contemplate life with music, work, drive, cook…Every. Thing. With. Music! I can listen to specific music and be transported back in memory to certain friends, events, or feelings. Music is just woven into the fiber of who I am and, if for whatever reason, I am unable to press play and stroll through my life in music, someone who loves me better step up and hit shuffle like their life depends on it. Because mine will.

So, what makes you, You? What important things do your loved ones need to know, not about where to find the deed to the house or the bank password (yes, still important!) but about what makes you whole and is important to who you want to be, regardless of your situation? For one client, it was sitting/looking outside at dusk with their gin and tonic, another wanted their evening gummies, one client hadn’t taken off a necklace since receiving it in childhood and never wanted to be without it, one gentleman just wanted to make sure his false teeth were in! Needing to depend on the help of others as we age should not diminish our dignity and agency. Those things that make us who we are shouldn’t be any less important as we get older (the opposite!!), just because we might need someone’s assistance to make sure they still happen. We just need to spend the time, now, sorting out what those important elements are and make sure our friends and family know what they are and what they mean to us!

These are the important questions I want to help you uncover and communicate to your loved ones, just in case you can’t one day. Reach out if you’d like some help with the conversation.
Until then, I'll be here working and listening to today's playlist...