A highlight of spending a few weeks in Florida age is to take breaks from my activities to walk on the beach and just enjoy “being”. There is something reviving and stimulating about splashing through the seawater as the waves wash up on the shore.

Yesterday walking on the beach I passed a woman searching among some scattered shells. Following the hurricane there are very few shells on the beach this year. I said this to her
as I walked near her and we struck up a conversation. 30 minutes later we were still talking. She fascinated me with stories of her multiple activities and her love of life.

She was definitely an AgeEsteemer. I learned that her activities included stimulating discussion groups, volunteering where she interacted with all generations, and traveling to the new and unknown. It was clear that she was living fully, keeping her mind alive, stretching herself further, and interacting with different people – which obviously included speaking to strangers on a beach.

Hmm. I wonder if she thought I was an AgeEsteemer, too.

Bonnie Fatio

Life Is What We Make It! – And we each create it differently.

Meet my AgeEsteemer friend, Amy Andersson, who just rappelled down 31 stories of a building in Philadelphia, USA!

She loves to push her comfort zone. During the past few years Amy has driven a dogsledding team in subzero temperatures in Canada, climbed trees and rocks in Pennsylvania, and bicycled in Europe. She says with each new adventure, she gains unique insights into problem-solving and operational processes that she then can apply to her business and those of her clients.

It will not surprise you to learn that Amy also created her business, Andersson Productivity Solutions offering virtual CFO services, at a time in her life when most colleagues of her age were retiring.

Bonnie Fatio

The childhood tongue twister, “Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers” has a philosophy to it.  If you picked a peck of peppers and ate them, you would be very healthy indeed!  For peppers have a powerhouse of nutrients for the AgeEsteemer’s body.  There are green, red, yellow, and orange bell peppers and smaller chili peppers.  The lovely little vegetables are tempting to the eye in their shiny coats.  They may be eaten raw or cooked, stuffed and baked, boiled, broiled, fried and mixed with other vegetables such as eggplant, zuchinni, and tomatoes as well as adding a hot spice to  food.

Bell peppers are loaded with vitamin C, fighting off cancer, eye diseases and even conditions such as Alzheimer’s.  Chili peppers, which are very hot, are good for unblocking clogged up lungs and bronchial tubes.  The compound that makes them hot acts as natural aspirin. In addition, when added to food they speed up the metabolism, thus enabling the burning of calories. One interesting study shows that they do not destroy the lining of the stomach nor do they cause ulcers.   Venture out now and pick a peck of peppers!

Grandma Nature

Pauline Mawaka   Executive Dir. Of Senior Women Citizens for Change

When Pauline Mawaka retired as a school teacher she decided to help change the lives of aging women in Kenya.  I had the privilege to meet Pauline in Nairobi and to learn first hand how she is going about this.  The following words are hers.

“After retirement I began creating awareness of violence against women and in other communities in Kenya.  I have been in most areas of Kenya to say that you must identify yourself as a woman in the community.  Speak out if you are violated.  No one else will speak for you.  Don’t be oppressed.

When women are beaten by their husband they feel that they let him down or failed.  They say they fell down the stairs.  Women are afraid to tell the truth.  We have now started to speak to schools and have women come out and say that they are beaten.  But the problem is that the Police laugh saying the problem is domestic.  This is changing as we get many women to come out.  At the grass roots they are still very oppressed.  I work in the slums of Nairobi.  Women who came from the country did so because their husbands violated them.  Then they come and stay with men in the slums and they are again violated.  They have a red eye or swollen cheek.  With time I think they will understand.  They’ve been oppressed for years.  It takes time.

I got married to a man who believed that a woman is a woman and her place is in the kitchen, but because I was involved in issues of women’s rights I decided I would say no to violence.  He still violates me, but I stand by my rights.  I have declared my rights.  My daughters too.  When a man came to marry my daughter, she said to me, “No, Mommy.  This man is like my dad.  I don’t want to marry him.”  She had seen her father shouting at me and telling me I’m stupid.  And that man is jobless.  I am the one who brings food on the table.  I am the one who has been caring for my children up to now.   He did very little to support.  But regardless of what he did I said that I wanted my children to go to school.  I wanted my children  to be educated.  All my 6 children have finished O levels.  One is working at the UN in NY as an accountant.  So it was like whatever this man was doing to me I didn’t care.  He couldn’t get me down.  I said I would stand firm and be sure that my children would have a good life.  They refuse to be violated.  To be married does not mean that I am a lesser person.

I sing.  When there are meetings like this, (World Council of the YWCA) I come.  Sometimes men don’t let us attend this type of meeting, but I do.  I control my own life.  I speak up.  My husband can call me a mushy brain, say that I am crazy.  Regardless of what I have been told I have walked and gotten on with my life.   Nobody lives my life except myself.  I control my thoughts and my body.  If I didn’t do that, I would not be here.  I would already be dead.  Although my husband never beat me, he abused me with insults.  When he says this I say Thank you.  All you say goes back to you.  I bounce them to you.

I still am here.  At the end of the day he lost his job.  I struggled as a teacher to provide and raise our children.  The man cannot say ‘Mama thank you, you are trying’.  Instead he says I am stupid.  I tell him stupid does not come into my mind but if you call me stupid I bounce it back to you.  One thing he has never done is to touch me.

I know I have a right in my home and in my country and I address it to other women.  I can help other women to say no.

I have a passion for women, and a purpose.  Sometimes when I listen to the women with their issues I just have water running from my eyes, but I know we can work together.  I must shake the world.  I can help women live happily.  It is because of violence that women cannot put food on the table.

When you are told from June to May that you are stupid, you believe you are stupid, you believe you are stupid.  Women encourage me so I keep my energy.  I think, God you love me and I will continue.”

AgeEsteemer Profile
Gladys Foster
Age 87, Centennial, Colorado, USA

Follow Your Bliss

“I’m a poor, old, half-blind widow,” Gladys Foster says matter-of-factly. “That’s true.”

Well, yes and no. Chronologically and compared to the population at large, 87 years of age is old. Gladys is legally blind in one eye from macular degeneration and has only half her sight in the other eye. She has been a widow for more than 20 years. But Gladys certainly isn’t poor in spirit! Dressed in bright red, her energy is tangible.

“And I’m loving it!” she adds about her self-definition with a sparkle in her eye. “I’m so excited about life – more now than ever!”

Gladys’s life revolves around her blog and the friendships it has created, her professional associations, her extended family and her retirement community.  

“I have no pets, no kids (to take care of), no job. Yet I’m too busy!”  she adds.

Active Blogger

And busy she is. She’s an active blogger. “The Internet is the greatest thing that has happened!” she asserts, likening it to the discovery of fire and the wheel. She started her blog (gladysfoster.blogspot.com) before the 2006 U.S. elections to talk with people about what is meaningful to her. The computer is her link to friends and the world community – and that fills her with joy. “I can write the blog indefinitely because I can type without looking,” she points out, referring to her limited eyesight.

Professional Political Economist

The subject of her blog is political economics, an area of study and involvement that has fascinated her all her adult life. After Gladys earned a Masters in Economics, she married J. Fagg Foster, who was also an economist. While he taught at the University of Denver, she raised their three children. Then in 1985, she earned a Ph.D. in Economics.

“The Ph.D. gave me the credentials to publish in academic journals and to teach,” she explains. Widowed and 63 years old, she began teaching economics as an adjunct professor at the University of Colorado – Denver. She also began to participate actively in two professional organizations for economists, the Association for Institutional Thought (AFIT) and the Association for Evolutionary Economics (AFEE).

“I love going to their annual meetings. I can say anything I want,” she beams. “I come back high!”

Sister and Mother

Gladys’s family and local community are also key elements of her life. Every year, she and her four surviving siblings, ages 79 to 87, have a family reunion in their home town of Elk View, South Dakota. She also travels to see her daughter, two sons and grandchildren and hosts visits from them.

At home, her days are joyfully full. Besides writing her blog, she exercises, walks up to 40 minutes most days, does all her own cooking and cleaning, and takes a weekly tai chi class. She also belongs to the retirement village’s Vision Group, formed for people with impaired vision to share ideas and provide information about new devices.

Avid Learner

She’s a voracious reader (using a magnifying glass) and audio-book listener. When the library bookmobile comes to her retirement community every two weeks, she stocks up on books and tapes. They range from novels to tomes on neurobiology. She emphasizes, “I want to spend the rest of my life learning!”

Gladys obviously loves to toss humor and camaraderie into her life. Twice a month, she joins other members of the Wicked Widows for happy hour at one of their retirement village homes. Each member has a white canvas bag to tote her goodies. “When others see us walking down the street with our little bags, they sing, ‘We know where you’re going!’” she relates. “We talk and laugh about absolutely nothing.”

What’s the secret to this AgeEsteemer’s vibrant and joyful life? Gladys sums it up this way ― “Follow your bliss.”

Note: Gladys is the inspiration for “Gladys” p. 20 in the chapter From Doubts to Daring of the book, AgeEsteem: Growing a Positive Attitude Toward Aging by Bonnie Lou Fatio.