Two pictures of the elderly in America dominate.

One pictures seniors as convivial grandparents, spoiling grandchildren with toys and taffy, enjoying priceless moments of conspiratorial mirth.

The other dog-eared snapshot isn’t a proud Kodak moment. It pictures silver-headed senior citizens beaten black-and-blue. Or neglected to the point of bedsores. Or sobbing over the realization someone bamboozled her out of her nest egg.

Seniors like the 83-year-old father of Jeffery Frank Watkins.