Women Over 70: Aging Reimagined

Why is grief so complicated and why does grieving take such a long time, possibly never ending? In The Grieving Brain (2022), renowned grief expert, neuroscientist, and psychologist, Mary-Frances O’Connor, PhD, offers new perspectives on understanding love, loss, and learning. Complicated grief sets in when we cannot move into the natural healing process. Our brains need to learn how to process gr...

Donna Chacko, MD, practiced medicine for 40 years, first as a radiation oncologist and later, after retraining in her 50’s, as a family medicine doctor. While serving people faced with poverty and homelessness, she learned that health involves far more than the absence of disease. Donna’s professional experiences and her own emotional suffering during a difficult first marriage led her to create S...

Before abortion was legalized by the US Supreme Court in 1973 (Roe v Wade), a Chicago-based group of over 100 women--known as Jane--provided counseling and illegal abortions for 11,000 women (1969-1973). Rev. & Dr. Patricia Novick, age 75, was one of the original Janes. Patricia and founder Heather Booth are among those featured in the illuminating film The Janes. In her conversation with...

Nancy Watson’s entrepreneurial spirit has led her on different paths, always toward nurturing other people. Her 8-year long career as a teacher in disadvantaged neighborhoods in Chicago in the 1970s was interrupted by a 2-year stint as the contented owner of an antiques store. Cooking became Nancy’s outlet for dealing with the demands of teaching, leading eventually to a large-scale catering busin...

Pauline Boss, PhD. - The Myth of Closure: Ambiguous Loss in a Time of Pandemic and Change.

Karen Kalish’s career included school teacher, consumer advocate, business owner, and on-air TV reporter. She became a serial social entrepreneur and believes that to whom much is given, much is required. “Partners and collaborators are what make it work. No one nonprofit can do “it” alone and doing things alone is the weakest form of leadership”, she says. In this way the missions of the three no...

At age 97, Joan Harmsen still thrives on helping others make life more meaningful and fun. As a young war bride, Joan traded the paradise-like environment of southern Australia for the hard realities of farm life in Minnesota. To alleviate disappointment and depression, Joan brought fun to her hard-working community--teaching tap dancing, championing girls’ athletic activities, and acting in commu...

Lois Wagh Aronstein has advocated for older people the majority of her career. First, when she initiated Project Reward through the Framingham Chamber of Commerce and then as the New England representative for AARP and in various capacities for 26 years. "As a society we must understand the value of older people. We can design social structures in a way that plays down dependence and creates indep...

For Phyllis Walden, life experiences offer abundant opportunities for learning.  Reading The Second Sex near completion of her doctoral program in Philosophy in the late 1960s reinforced Phyllis’ feminist perspectives. As a mentor and teacher in innovative college programs, Phyllis brought her daily practice of journal writing to the classroom. After retirement at age 57 from college life, Phyllis...

At age 65, Jane Llewellyn (PHD, RN) decided to retire from her rewarding and demanding positions as Vice President of Nursing and as Associate Dean of the Nursing College at Rush University Medical Center. Why retire when she was on top of her game? Having survived aggressive breast cancer at age 43, with only a 20% chance to live beyond five years, Jane wanted to “experience more and enjoy life w...

Ever since she came to the United States from Kobe, Japan, at 10, Lily Liu has devoted herself to living up to the role models she found in her grandparents, aunt and mother. Her grandmother raised her while her mother, widowed at 32, worked to support her children. Every Sunday was Mother’s Day because it was the only day her mother was off from her work. She came to spend quality time with Lily...

Martha Hansen knows what it’s like to age. What she didn’t know was that 7 Days at Sea would be the first play she wrote and self-produced. Or that it would hit, head-on, the sexuality of women at older ages, as well as bring her close up to illness, gayness, and the growing insignificance women experience as they age. Martha says a lot of the credit for mounting the play goes to Kristina McCloske...

As a child of the 1960s drug culture, Stephanie Raffelock dropped out of high school. Her return to formal education in her mid-thirties opened the doorway into examining her own life and providing platforms for other women to tell the stories of their truths. In her recent book, Creatrix Rising--Unlocking the Power of Midlife Women--Stephanie changes the last stage of a woman’s life cycle from th...

Dr. Katharine Esty’s husband was seriously ill when she turned 80. It put her in a funk. Even hiking with her family, an ordinary event, sent her deeper into the doldrums. Katharine couldn’t make it to the top of a favorite hill during one hike and it (removed only) made her realize she couldn’t keep doing everything she did.  She decided it was time for research. As a psychotherapist, Katharine k...

Vicki Thomas, 76 is a life-long journalist, producer, writer and purpose-driven business woman. She started her career as a media writer for a multi-state trade association, worked for ABC Chicago and, in 1988, started her own company. At 75, she realized it was time to do more and, with partner, Joyce Cohen, they created My Future Purpose, which fulfills her desire to help individuals harness the...

In recognition of National Poetry Month, we bring you Joyce Sutphen. Joyce Sutphen discusses her love of teaching and writing poetry, her attachment to rural life, and her decade-long experience living with Parkinson’s. Farm girl becomes college professor becomes Minnesota Poet Laureate. In her eight published collections of poetry, Joyce meets head on the challenges of living and dying, conveying...

Joan Sotkin, 81, is the creator of 3 books and 5 audios and a financial coach whose approach is based on brain science. She is also the host of the podcast The Prosperity Show.   “What you believe affects what happens in your life. Every decision has an emotional component.” - Joan Sotkin In 1976, while living in Venice, CA, Joan gave away all her possessions and wandered for four years learning h...

Francine Russo grew up in New York - a lower middle class Jewish girl. Her parents felt strongly that her MRS. Degree was more important than getting her PH.D. She did marry, twice. Both husbands died and she was left to find Love After 50: the title of her latest book, which is a comprehensive and intimate guide to finding, keeping, and enjoying love after fifty, the best kind of love there is. T...

For Agnes Loughlin, a former nurse and nurse practitioner, the path to internal wellness begins with awareness. She emphasizes being aware of how we direct our attention and energy to our thoughts and emotions and encourages us to use these powerful tools to create our inner desires.  Agnes describes how her own feelings of loneliness and disconnection for many years were masked by busyness, until...

Cindi Elstienfinds herself in a pretty satisfying stage of life. Having overcome both breast cancer and a recent debilitating bout of pneumonia, along with several other difficult issues, she weathered 3 weeks in the hospital and has come out stronger and feeling positive. Cindi believes your mental attitude is critical in the healing process.  "I feel very young. I’m lucky to have found a passion...

“Brain-Boosting Nutrients are key to real-time, real-world approaches to maintaining and improving health.” Dr. Patricia Walicke is a 40 year veteran in neuroscience. She earned her MD from Harvard-MIT Health Science and Technology program and her PhD from the Harvard Dept. of Neuroscience. Her primary area was Alzheimer's disease research under Dr. Robert Katzman.  In 1989 she started a clinical...

Janie Petkus is an internationally renowned interior designer. She works in all aspects of design including architectural plans, lighting and landscape. Her love for this work oozes out of her.  Janie’s mother, and Doris Day were both role models and inspirations for her to pursue this career. She served as President of the Illinois Chapter of the International Society of Interior Designers (ISID)...

Frances Fuller grew up in poverty. All of her books belonged to the state of Arkansas. Her mother had a 4th grade education. It is a wonder, then, that Frances became a writer and publisher and left a legacy in the form of an entire body of literature in Arabic, for Arabic children. From an early age, Frances was a devotee of the American columnist, Ernie Pyle. Committing to a lifetime of missiona...

Vinyls are Couch Covers: Improv & Long-Term Care Insurance! Quote: Life can be so hard when you believe Medicare insurance covers you and it does not. Gail Steingold is a go-getter whose life contains a lot of improvisation. From clinical speech pathology to long term care insurance, learning and laughing have been her constant companions. It makes sense when your work is serious and deals so...

For the last 32 years, Louise reinvented herself many times. After her husband died when she was 44, she realized she had never lived on her own. Two big questions arose: “Why am I here?”. “What am I supposed to do with my life?”. Through coursework, metaphysics and hypnotherapy, she slowly found her way. Always the extrovert, she learned to tone down her enthusiasm and take time to listen. Today...