Interesting….

She Became a College Graduate at 95!

Update: Ochs went back to Fort Hays State University and completed a master’s degree in liberal studies.

Talk about continuing education. Kansas great-grandmother Nola Ochs, the world’s oldest college graduate at age 95, is now pursuing a master’s degree.

Marriage and raising four boys on a farm kept her busy until the 1970s, when her husband, Vernon, passed away, and her youngest left the nest. “I wanted to get off the farm and do something for pleasure,” says Nola. So she took tennis lessons. Then a series of agribusiness marketing courses because, she says, “My boys were running the farm but we didn’t know how to market.” Her appetite for learning whetted, she signed up for whatever courses sounded interesting—including geography, genealogy, composition. “They will judge my generation by what we write, so I wanted to write well,” Nola reasons.

She discovered a real passion for history, a zeal enjoyed by her professors and fellow students at Fort Hays State University, who got to hear Nola’s firsthand experiences of events they’d only read about. She told the story of her family riding their team of horses into town. Nola, then just a young girl, was sure her father was going to leave for World War I (he didn’t) and wondered how her mother would be able to get the wagon back home. She told the class about cattle , the storms of the Dust Bowl in the 1930s, the radio announcement of the attack on Pearl Harbor, about how her father’s farmer status kept him out of World War II as well.

To cut down on travel to and from class, Nola moved off the farm and got an apartment on campus, furnishing it with a computer. Not one to shy away from new technology, she took a class, of course, on how to use it.

“My oldest son was skeptical, but when he saw how many friends I had he didn’t worry for long,” says Nola. Faculty and students were friendly and welcoming. Among her closest study buddies? Her 21-year-old granddaughter Alexandra, who graduated with her last May.

Life for the senior citizen college grad has been anything but mellow: a celebratory cruise, responding to well-wishers from all over the world, an appearance on The Tonight Show.

“Overall my enthusiasm comes from believing that what I do is helping the college and helping our state,” says Nola. “Just knowing that I am encouraging people, that’s what gives me all my energy.”

Nola’s Tips

Set a date to begin. We talk about things but we don’t do them.

Let people help you. They really do want to help!

Search your inner being for what you like to do. Everyone has something that they didn’t think there was time for. But it’s possible if you begin.

10 Seniors We Really Admire

 

These seniors are breaking the age barrier and doing amazing things. 

Los Gatos Meadows

 

 

“My memory is gone Mildred, so I changed my password to “Incorrect.” That way when I log in with the wrong password, the computer will tell me… “Your password is incorrect.”

Professional Help: 5 Tips for Senior Citizens on Simple, Healthy Living

To slow down the physical and mental decline that comes with age, drugs and exercise aren’t enough. According to a study out of the University of Southern California, a lifestyle makeover is necessary.

 

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It’s never too late to go healthy. Anybody, young or old, can successfully redesign the way they live to be healthier. While we don’t have a say in our own genetic makeup, greater than 50 percent of our mental and physical health status is related to lifestyle. You can even start small: ride public transportation, reconnect with a long-lost friend, join a ballroom dance class, or follow guidelines on how to safely move around the community. The point is, try something new and be willing to learn.

Take control of your health. Appreciate the relationship between what you do, how you feel, and their impact on your well-being. Our research suggests that social and productive activities are as important as physical ones for staying healthy. As we age, even deceptively simple or downright mundane pursuits like reading the newspaper, cooking a potluck dish, walking the dog, or going to church have a powerful influence on our physical and mental health.

Know thyself. The guiding principle of Socrates rings just as true today as it did in ancient Athens. Lifestyle changes are most sustainable when they fit into the fabric of your everyday life — your interests, schedule, and self-concept. Identify supports on your journey that are strong enough to counterbalance the obstacles you face. Set goals that are challenging but still realistic enough to be achieved.

Anticipate how chronic conditions may affect your plan. Over 70 percent of seniors age 65 and older have a chronic condition, such as hypertension, heart disease, diabetes, arthritis, COPD, or cataracts. Don’t let these impede your progress. Before a big game, elite athletes visualize their performance in their minds’ eye. So too should you be prepared for the potential ways you might have to adapt or improvise. And, of course, consult your physician in advance about any new activities.

Living longer can also mean living better. Our research demonstrates that maintaining a mix of productive, social, physical, and spiritual activities as you age can lead to increased vitality, social function, mental health, and life satisfaction, along with decreased symptoms of depression and self-reported bodily pain. Even better, activity-centric lifestyle interventions to ward off illness and disability may also be more cost-effective and have fewer negative side effects than prescription drugs.

Proof that age is just a number

There is no clearly defined age when an American becomes a senior citizen. Some people might consider themselves seniors when they are invited to join AARP, qualify for Medicare, or officially retire from the workplace. Some 96 percent of current 50-year-olds don’t consider themselves senior citizens and only slightly over half (56 percent) of 64-year-olds say the term senior citizen applies to them, according to a Del Webb survey released today.

 

The 50-year-olds in the survey say they are not senior citizens because they are under age 65, aren’t eligible for entitlements, and simply don’t feel like a senior. And about half the 64-year-olds say senior citizen status does not apply to them because they don’t feel like a senior and are still active and young at heart. The 64-year-olds who embrace the term say they are seniors because they get senior discounts and are over age 60.

 

Both the older and younger baby boomers indicate that they feel younger than their chronological age. The 50-year-olds say they feel a median age of 39 and the 64-year-olds generally feel 50. The younger boomers say a person becomes old at age 78, while the older boomers indicate that old age begins at 80.

Tell us, when do you become a senior citizen?

Love This!

A Love Story

Shirley and Moe’s story first appeared on the wonderful Humans of New York Facebook Page. They went back and interviewed Shirley. Here is her heartwarming story.

Los Gatos Meadows Presents Shirley and Moe

 

Music Therapy Helps Cape Cod Seniors’ Brains

HYANNIS, Mass. (AP) — On Flag Day about 10 seniors sat around a piano while Brianna LePage, a music therapist at The Gathering Place in Eastham, played patriotic tunes.

It was hard not to toe tap and sing along to ‘‘The Star Spangled Banner.’’ And that’s exactly what many in the room did as an hour flew by.

Some of them suffer from dementia and other cognitive impairments that make it difficult to recall even relatives’ names. But they knew the words to the songs from their childhoods, LePage said.

Music lives in a part of the mind that isn’t easily destroyed by dementia, said LePage, who studied music therapy at the Berklee College of Music in Boston after graduating from Provincetown High School.

‘‘It’s one of the final areas of the brain to go,’’ she said. ‘‘Music stays with us for our whole lives.’’

After college, LePage headed to the Bronx for an internship at the Institute for Music and Neurologic Function, which is run by the renowned music therapist Dr. Concetta Tomaino and the famed neurologist Dr. Oliver Sacks, author of ‘‘Musicophilia,’’ and ‘‘The Man Who Mistook his Wife for a Hat.’’

Sacks and Tomaino taught her a great deal, said LePage, who, in addition to singing, plays piano and guitar.

But she learned the most about music therapy from her next job, working with a 94-year-old patient at the Kings Harbor Multicare Center in the Bronx.

‘‘This woman was totally isolated and alone, but I gravitated toward her,’’ LePage said. ‘‘I tried guitar, I tried piano and it just didn’t work.’’

But LePage kept trying and then the woman began to recognize her from across the room. She opened up, and regained as much function as she had when she first entered Kings Harbor, LePage said. Although her mind was compromised, her spirit rebounded.

‘‘She called me Jenny, her childhood friend,’’ LePage said. ‘‘I would play for her and she sang with me.’’

The theory behind music therapy is to use the functioning part of the brain, where music lives, as a way to stimulate other parts of the mind.

‘‘I’ve had patients who cannot say a word but they can sing the words to an entire song,’’ LePage said.

Music also makes people more cheerful and social, she said.

That’s why when LePage, 36, returned to Cape Cod in 2004, and began performing at senior centers (she also worked at assisted living and nursing homes on the Cape until she had a baby last year) the director of The Gathering Place, Jill Benelli, shoved a job application in her hand.

‘‘We needed an activities director and I said to Brianna, ‘You have to work here,’’’ Benelli said.

LePage started her job in April at The Gathering Place, which is a regional adult day care program located in the Eastham Senior Center. For $35 to $45 a day, a person will be cared for and entertained five days a week.

Transportation, field trips, and meals are provided. The 12 or so people who currently attend range from those who just need to get out of the house to seniors with mental and physical impairments.

‘‘Previous to having Brianna here, we had performers come in, and those were always our best days,’’ Benelli said. ‘‘Now (we) have her and they’re all good days.’’

‘‘I was depressed and isolating at home,’’ said Ruth Johnston, 83, a Gathering Place regular who lives in Eastham. ‘‘It’s wonderful here. I love listening to Brianna sing and play. It’s made me really happy. People have noticed the change in me. The staff makes you feel loved.’’