Last Saturday I had the privilege of conferring the Master's degree on an 82-year-old brother... I had done his EA back last November, and all of his lectures and mentoring. Brother B wasn't able to memorize and repeat back the lecture word-perfect, but he was able to prove a working knowledge of the information. The fellow is mentally sharp, it's jutst that short-term memory centers sometimes get affected as we grow older. I lost both my parents in the past few years to Alzheimers and stroke-induced dementia, so to me, "dotage" means that the person is mentally impaired to an extent where he (or she) is unable to make reasonable decisions on their own behalf. Mere age is not that much of a factor as is mental capacity and the ability to make reasoned decisions.