Women Over 70: Aging Reimagined

Rita Wilkins is a nationally recognized interior design and lifestyle design expert. Her TEDx Talk, Downsize Your Life, Why Less is More, tells it all. The inspiration for her downsizing journey began in Senegal where for the first time in her life, she experienced people who had nothing, but were happy. She realized she wanted a simpler life with less...95% less! “Living with less, let’s you do more.” - Rita Wilkins Rita believes the LESS you have, the MORE time, money, and energy you have to pursue what matters most to you. She shares with us how to think about our meaningful memorabilia and momentos, how to manage leaving them behind and how to move forward as we redesign our lives. Connect with Rita: Email: ritawilkins@ritawilkins.com Website: https://ritawilkins.com Book: Downsize Your Life, Upgrade Your Lifestyle: Secrets to More Time, Money and Freedom Available on Amazon. Connect with Gail & Catherine: Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/Wo70AgingReimagined Instagram: WomenOver70 Website:https://womenover70.com Email: info@womenover70.com Show: Women Over 70 – Aging Reimagined Listen on: Apple Play, Stitcher, Please rate our show and subscribe wherever you listen. This is how we grow.  

“Caregivers give the greatest gift of all, with their love, guidance and direction.” – Julie Cook Downing As the President and founder of Caregivers Comfort Creations, LLC, Julie's mission is to empower and support millions of family Caregivers and Veterans' Caregivers through her experiences and highly rated Caregiver Support Groups. She consults, trains caregivers, produces workshops and provides inspirational planning support. She is also the creator and publisher of Caregivers and Veterans’ Caregivers Calendars. According to Julie, 1 in 3 caregivers are depressed. Their mortality rate is 63-70% higher than is normal. Caregivers often experience social isolation which carries with it some medical risk. Long distance caregiving is a heavy load. Julie lifts caregivers up while motivating and inspiring them. She is the author of Caregivers Comfort 366 Day Inspirational Journal and Record Book. Connect with Julie Cook Downing: Email: caregivercomfort@aol.com Website: www.caregiverscomfort.com/products Connect with Gail & Catherine: Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/Wo70AgingReimagined Instagram: WomenOver70 Website:https://womenover70.com Email: info@womenover70.com Show: Women Over 70 – Aging Reimagined Listen on: Apple Play, Stitcher, Please rate our show and subscribe wherever you listen. This is how we grow.  

Susan Stall highlights transformative experiences that shaped her path as a Community Sociologist and advocate for women’s equity and empowerment and grass-roots community development. While on the faculty at Northeastern Illinois University, Susan taught multi-disciplinary courses such as Gender and the Built Environment, and directed student service learning and internships in local communities. In ‘retirement,’ Susan serves as President of Arbor West Neighbors, engaging older people in community issues such as creative housing options. Most recently, Susan promotes talking across generations about racial injustice. She also hosts a Salon on Women & Aging, recognizing that “aging is a big passage.”   "I am most interested in the invisible actions in communities that are transformative." - Susan Stall, Ph.D.   Contact Information: stallsusan@gmail.com Feldman, R., & Stall, S. (2004). The Dignity of Resistance: Women Residents' Activism in Chicago Public Housing   Connect with Gail & Catherine: Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/Wo70AgingReimagined Instagram: WomenOver70 Website:https://womenover70.com Email: info@womenover70.com Show: Women Over 70 – Aging Reimagined Listen on: Apple Play, Stitcher, Please rate our show and subscribe wherever you listen. This is how we grow.    

Susana was born in Romania, worked in Canada and now resides in the United States. She has a Ph.D. in Computer Design Engineering and over 30 years of experience defining and using advanced technologies. During this time, she experienced two traumatic brain injuries on the same day, resulting in brain trauma and bone misalignment. The path to recovery was arduous and frustrating. “We are born with an innate ability of self-repair.” - Susana Stoica Ph.D. Since her own trauma, Susana now focuses her healing practice on helping people with neural impairments. Author of 9 books, including five increasingly complex cookbooks on using healthy cooking to recover from brain trauma, she works with people worldwide helping them heal by correcting their energy fields. Connect with Susana: Website: HealingBrainInjury.com Email: HealingBrainInjury@gmail.com Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/s?k=susana+stoica&i=stripbooks&crid=376QMS5X78WT1&sprefix=Susana+Stoic%2Caps%2C158&ref=nb_sb_ss_fb_1_12

At 85, Karin has been widowed twice, always has a man in her life, and lives out her dreams with passionate reality. She is gutsy and game! Her 2nd husband had passed away from complications due to Parkinson’s disease. After retiring from a career in marriage and family counseling at 78, specifically as a bereavement counselor, she decided to move on her own to France and live out a promise they made while on their honeymoon in Aix-en-Provence. Planning to stay 1 year, she found that was not enough and stretched it to two. From that experience came her first book, “Blue Satin Nightgown - My French Makeover at 78.” “I know how mental age is. Attitude is everything.” - Karin Crilly Karin lays out for us all the steps it took for her to move to France and what she did while she was there to make the 2 years into a wonderful adventure. At 80, she knew it was time to return home. Connect with Karin: Email: kcrillymft@sbcglobal.net   Book: Blue Satin Nightgown: My French Makeover at 78   Connect with Gail & Catherine: Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/Wo70AgingReimagined Twitter: @womenover70 Instagram: WomenOver70 Website:https://womenover70.com Email: info@womenover70.com Show: Women Over 70 – Aging Reimagined Listen on: Apple Podcast, Google Play Music, Stitcher, or Spotify Please rate our show and subscribe wherever you listen. This is how we grow.  

  "The beauty of aging is you have more time to help people." - Harriett Cholden   As a young adult, Harriett visited Chicago from her home in Waterloo, Iowa and never looked back. She got a job teaching 5 th grade at an independent school based on the progressive philosophy of John Dewey, and stayed for 40 years. Upon retirement 16 years ago, Harriett has continued the teachings of Dewey in her extensive volunteer work with new citizens eager to vote, people who are blind, youth who are college-bound, and adults who are non-reading. Harriett offers an expansive perspective on what friendship can encompass and tips on ways to make new friends as we age. Listen in for why Harriett took up tap dancing at age 79.   Contact Harriett: Contact Information: harriettch@me.com

"If I hear some screeching of the wheels, I'll just put a little oil on them and carry on." - Bobbi Wilsyn Jazz/Blues performer, educator, actress and Professor Emerita at Columbia College Chicago, Bobbi Wilsyn, 72, has lived a life of purpose. Now in her 3rd act, she is redesigning her career and looking forward to new adventures and opportunities to serve, in ways that motivate and move minds with new ideas of awareness through her music and workshops. Bobbi is wise in ways of the heart and asks others to step out and take risks. She says, “We are all ‘leaners, learners and leaders at different times.” A favorite quote from her mother is “Nothing gets old but clothes and cars. If you wait around long enough, they’ll come back in style.” This 3rd act has become an encore and Bobbi is just getting started. Connect with Bobbi Wilsyn: Email: bwilsyn@att.net   You Tube: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Bobbi+Wilsyn

Dr. Holstein, a vocal advocate for women aging, speaks both to individuals and the larger politic. She urges women to own their age—if you are old, acknowledge it.  Live by your norms, not those for people far younger: Intergenerational conversations are important. Dr. Holstein raises awareness of how differentials concerning race, class, religion, and sexual identity affect the problems we encounter and the choices available for how we age and live. Individual solutions are insufficient; political-systemic answers are needed to remedy ills around aging, especially aging women. If we don’t accept and respect our age, how will we identify those problems associated with being old and work toward resolving them? The personal is political--ageism and social disparities inhibit women from making meaningful choices of how to live well while aging. - Martha Holstein, Ph.D. Contact Information: Mbholstein360@gmail.com Holstein, M. (2015). Women in Late Life: Critical Perspectives on Gender and Age. Rowman & Littlefield. Connect with Gail and Catherine: Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/Wo70AgingReimagined Instagram: WomenOver70 Website:https://womenover70.com Email: info@womenover70.com Show: Women Over 70 – Aging Reimagined Listen on: Apple Play, Stitcher, Please rate our show and subscribe wherever you listen. This is how we grow.

An Uncommon Life From childhood, Sallie longed to communicate with creatures different from her - human and otherwise. Her difficult upbringing and early adulthood influenced the paths she chose in her life.  A white woman growing up in the south, guided by a black nurse/companion/teacher, she used these formative experiences to become an eloquent writer, educator, editor, advocate – and finally, falconer. “I learned patience from caring for injured hawks, and how to turn off my internal chatter so I could listen and truly hear them.” - Sallie Reynolds Sallie has taught herself two skills vital to these aims: to shut off the internal chatter that interferes with real listening, and, with painful patience, to recognize and reject the attitudes she absorbed growing up. She began writing at age 3, dictating the story of Adam and Eve, sans rib, to her aunt. Today, she is the author of 3 books, plus a long multi-volume novel about the Jim Crow South, newly completed. Connect with Sallie: Email: salliereynolds@gmail.com Website: https://.takethemoment.org Read her books: Rapture & Virginia Primitive, both available on Amazon Also, Ordinary Expectations, 3 Volumes, manuscript https://www.amazon.com/Sallie-Reynolds/e/B00I171RGA?ref_=dbs_p_pbk_r00_abau_000000   Link to article on falconry: https://www.ginnyrorby.org/blog

Living in 9 places in 11 years taught Diana how to adapt as a young woman. She had to figure things out. First an art therapist and then a school adjustment counselor, Diana realized she would need multiple degrees to further her career and provide her with the necessary skills to ultimately become a marriage and family therapist. Quote: “Assess & adapt in each stage - adapting is key to thriving.” “The family is a system, with lots of puzzle pieces to try to figure out in order to help people better their relationships and lives,” she says. She began a long-term private practice and while at The Family Center in Massachusetts became head of the couples program. After her first marriage ended, later in life she married Howard Kassler and found a deep love and companionship that lasted until he passed away in 2019. This is her story. Connect with Diana: Email: dianaappell@gmail.com Psychology Today article: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/therapists/diana-kassler-appell-boston-ma/91204   Connect with Gail & Catherine: Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/Wo70AgingReimagined Instagram: WomenOver70 Website:https://womenover70.com Email: info@womenover70.com Show: Women Over 70 – Aging Reimagined Listen on: Apple Play, Stitcher, Please rate our show and subscribe wherever you listen. This is how we grow.