What Do You Assume to be True About the Elderly?

Professor Wexelbaum has asked me to pick a population of people that I know very little to nothing about and write about what would assume to be true about the members of said population.  Well before I worked at an Assisted Living I thought that all old people were just generally unhappy people who are just waiting to die.  In the media, most depictions of the elderly show them to be either extremely unhappy and grumpy (like the comic character Crankshaft), or more of a Betty White character, the person that is semi unconnected that everyone laughs at at social gatherings.  When I got a job at Parkview Care Center I learned that although there are many of the elderly who behave in this manner, there are many of them who are very happy people!