living 50+ march 2013

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LIVINGPLUS

A younger lifestyle for an active generation

50March 2013

2 Living 50 Plus • March 2013

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By TERRI GORDONSpecial

to Leader Publications

We’ve all seen them: The overly tanned women with bleached blonde hair, wearing a micro-mini a size too small. The old “hippie” whose long locks once wafted on the wind, now gray and grizzled. Fifty-somethings still trying to be their teenage selves.

Instead, they look dated and old.STAY

ING

YOUN

GST

AYIN

G YO

UNG Don’t take

anti-aging techniques too far

It may be difficult to let go of one’s youth, but the still young at heart needn’t let that struggle show. Aging gracefully is about highlighting the positive and camouflaging the rest — accepting body changes and working with them.

Graying hair is an obvious sign of aging--one easily managed according to Debora Stefanos, owner of the Off Main Street Hair Salon in Niles.

“You can blend it,” she said. “You can cover it completely. You can highlight. You can lowlight. It all depends on what the individual person needs.”

In determining a person’s needs, Stefanos considers a person’s lifestyle as well as their physical appearance.

“You want to talk about upkeep of the hair,” she said. “You want to talk about skin tone. Do they wear makeup?”

A mistake people often make in coloring their hair is to try to recapture the hair color of their youth. It’s better to stick with something closer to its current color.

Women make mistakes

when it comes to makeup too, often showing their age more than hiding it. Metallic eye shadows, strong eyeliners, and powdered blushes are best left to the young.

“A lot of people wear too harsh an eyeliner,” said Stefanos. “So, you can soften the eyeliner with colors instead of the typical black that a lot of

As we get older, we tend to put on weight or our body shifts. It’s not

the same.— Debora Stefanos,Off Main Street Hair Salon ”“

Consider lifestyle as well as your personal appearance before making any changes.

2 Living 50 Plus • March 2013 Living 50 Plus • March 2013 3

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women continue to wear.“Once you get beyond

the age of 40, you really shouldn’t be wearing shimmer colors on your eyes. It ages them tremendously. So, [you should try for] a more natural look, with a matte finish.

“On the cheeks, you’ll want to use a stick versus a powder because your skin changes. It gets dryer.”

How a person dresses makes a big difference in how young or old a person looks. The short skirts and low cut shirts that once revealed toned legs and voluptuous cleavage now show sagging skin and knobby knees.

“Somebody 50 years old shouldn’t be wearing something a 20 year old would wear,” Stefanos warned. “As we get older, we tend to put on weight, or our body shifts. It’s not the same. You should always make sure the clothing fits you. If you’re a size 10, don’t buy a size 8. Buy a size 10. It will looks ten times better.”

Of course, men are not immune to aging —though society is a bit more forgiving of their

faults. Stefanos says a good haircut goes a long way. Like women, men can color their gray away, but Stefanos doesn’t recommend it, though a little coloring of any facial hair is okay.

“It doesn’t have to be major,” she said. “We still like to see a little gray in men’s hair.”

While these “beauty tricks” work wonders in helping a person look younger, much of aging gracefully takes place on the inside.

At Havens Retreat Day Spa in Buchanan, owner Sherrie Daniel promotes good health as a way to look younger.

“It’s important for the outside as well as the inside of your body,” she said, “because if you don’t feel good about yourself, no matter what you put on, you’re not going to feel good.”

And so, Daniel offers advice we have all heard before: practice good nutrition, stay fit, sleep well, manage stress, drink plenty of water, and don’t smoke. She also warns against spending too much time in the sun.

“Smoking makes you

look older faster,” she said. “Sun does damage to your skin, and water —which is the most important thing you can do — hydrates your skin.”

And so Daniel offers facials and massages, manicures and pedicures, and nutritional advice —all designed to encourage relaxation and detoxification.

“The largest organ in your body is the skin,” Daniel said, “ and what you put on it by way of lotions, sunscreens, all those things, have a tendency to clog your skin, so dry brushing, and different types of massage helps your body get rid of the toxins, and drinking the water helps flush everything out.”

While her approach is more from the inside out, Daniel does know a trick or two.

“One of the tricks the stars us is Preparation H under the eyes and under the chin. They tend to sag,” she said.

“And, you want to use a light touch when applying make-up.

“You want to use your ring finger. It has the least amount of pressure.

Losing some weight is a goal for many people regardless of age. While youngsters and young adults might be able to get away with a few extra pounds without suffering any signifi-cant consequences, older adults carry-ing some extra weight might be putting their overall health at considerable risk.

Shedding weight after the age of 50 is not always easy. As a person ages, mus-cle mass tends to dwindle while body fat has a tendency to increase. Since fat burns fewer calories than muscle, weight gain as a person ages is bound to happen. But that doesn’t mean such weight gain is inevitable. Men and women willing to make changes with regard to diet and exercise can shed pounds after 50.

DietMen and women need fewer calories

as they age. For example, men and women in their 40s may need as many as 200 calories more per day than they will when they reach their 50s. Count-ing calories might seem difficult, so men and women in their 50s and older who don’t think they can count calories can try to eat more low-calorie foods like fruits, vegetables and whole grains.

Consuming fewer calories often re-quires changing dietary habits, not only with regard to what you’re eating but also how you’re eating and even how you shop for food. Men and women used to dining out for lunch every day can start bringing their own lunches so

they can gain greater control of their daily caloric intake. For those who find they’re frequently too exhausted to cook each night, they can prepare meals in advance to have healthy, homemade meals waiting instead of always order-ing takeout or delivery. When shopping for food, people should avoid doing so on an empty stomach so they’re less in-clined to buy unhealthy snacks.

ExerciseExercise is another essential compo-

nent to shedding pounds after 50, though men and women over 50 should always consult a physician before they begin a new exercise regimen. The Cen-ters for Disease Control and Prevention points out that regular exercise can help older men and women prevent the onset of a host of ailments, including heart disease and diabetes. In addition, the CDC notes that regular physical activity as one ages helps muscles grow stron-ger, which increases the chances that an individual will be able to perform nec-essary daily activities without the assis-tance of others. Maintaining that inde-pendence into older adulthood is a goal for many men and women, and it’s a goal that’s far more realistic for men and women who exercise than it is for those who don’t.

When coupled with a healthy, low-calorie diet, routine exercise can help men and women over 50 shed extra weight and keep the weight off.

— Metro Creative Services

Shedding pounds after 50


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There’s good news in a new and cer-tifiable global trend: More elderly peo-ple are dying of cancer and heart dis-ease. That may not sound like good news, and in one obvious sense it isn’t. But before you can die in old age of so-called “rich-country” ailments like these, you have to survive many de-cades. That so many people are doing so represents a huge achievement.

“It shows that many parts of the globe have largely overcome infec-tious and communicable diseases as a pervasive threat, and that people on average are living longer,” Ezekiel Emanuel, head of the department of medical ethics and health policy at the University of Pennsyl-vania, told The New York Times. The evidence comes in a new report pro-duced by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evalu-ation at the University of Washington. It offers a lot of reasons to cheer.

First, infectious diseases kill far fewer people glob-ally today than they did just two decades ago. Diar-rhea, tuberculosis, malaria and measles have all dropped in the rankings of top causes of death. Better sanitation, greater avail-ability of medicines and wider inoculations have played crucial roles.

Malnutrition is also sub-siding. As living standards rise in poor nations, ade-

quate food supplies be-come available to more and more people. In 1981, 70 percent of the people in developing nations lived on less than $2 a day. Now, that share of the populace in those countries is down to 43 percent. And while malnutrition in 1990 was the world’s top risk factor for deaths and years of life lost, by 2010 it had dropped to eighth.

Odd progressIn the aggregate, then,

children in particular are remarkably less vulnerable than they used to be. Since 1990, the death rate of kids younger than age 5 has de-clined by some 60 percent.

Here is an odd but defi-nite sign of progress in the effort to reduce poverty: More people now die from obesity-related illnesses than from lack of food. The progress has not been uniform across the globe. Sub-Saharan Africa suffers disproportionately from childhood illnesses and le-

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ORT More defy

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Ethan Shelton, 109, of Berrien Center, holds the

most recent addition of the Shelton family, his

great-great-granddaughter, Melina Diaz, who was born

on Feb. 16 to Jeremiah and Lissa Diaz, of Niles.


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thal infections, including AIDS. But even there, the average age at death has risen by 10 years since 1970: As more children survive — other effects in a society remaining static — the average age of all its deaths rises.

In North Africa, Latin America and Asia, the in-crease since 1970 in the age of death has been more than 25 years. As causes of death shift from infectious

to noncommunicable dis-eases, AIDS is a global outlier: It may have peaked, but its effect re-mains steady, claiming some 1.5 million lives worldwide every year. It’s heartening to know that big, positive changes can occur in places that were sometimes seen as hope-less. The measures that have brought about this progress can be reinforced and expanded to make sure

it continues.

Poor choicesBut there is some bad

news. Millions of people still die prematurely from diseases linked to the choic-es they make — on things like smoking, eating and exercising. Tobacco use alone claims 6 million lives a year. Preventing cancer, heart disease and diabetes often means persuading people to change how they live, and that’s not easy to do. Smoking is a tough habit to break. Rising in-comes and cheap, tasty food have helped produce an epidemic of obesity. There is no vaccine for aversion to exercise.

The increase in lifestyle-related diseases means that while people are living lon-ger, many of them are also living sicker and requiring more medical treatment, which drives up costs. That’s the unfortunate price of progress against all sorts of ailments that kill young and old alike. But the prog-ress is real, and it’s wel-come.

— Chicago Tribune (MCT)


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By CRAIG HAUPERTcraig.haupert

@leaderpub.com

When it comes to serving his customers, Pete Adams is old school.

Pete, who has been run-

ning Pete’s Southside Mara-thon in Niles since the late 1960s, waited until last week to install pay-at-the pump gas dispensers at his South 11th Street station — something already offered by competitors for many,

PROF

ILES

PROF

ILES Marathon man

Pete’s Southside Marathon offers old-school service

many, many years.“You have to get updated

with the times,” he said. “People now, they are in such a big (expletive) hurry — excuse my French — but they are. They just want to put their credit card in

and go. It’s a hurry-up world anymore. It’s not like it used to be.”

Pete is one of the last — if not the very last — ser-vice station owners in the area to pump gas for cus-tomers upon request. Most customers don’t even have to ask Pete.

He knows them on sight.“We take care of our

people — especially the old people I know who’ve been trading with me for 40-some years,” he said. “We take care of them.”

If you visit Pete’s South-side Marathon, don’t call it gas station. It’s a full ser-vice station, offering ev-erything under the sun re-lated to auto maintenance, from oil changes, to tire work to transmission re-pair. You can rent a U-Haul there too.

“This isn’t a gas station

— that’s important,” he said.

“We offer service. If you just want gas, you can go across the street.”

It took about three weeks for the old pumps to get replaced with the new ones.

During that time, Pete said his customers wanted to know when they’d re-open.

“They are dedicated,” he said. “They were calling and asking, ‘Where are we going to get our gas?’

“You take good care of people, and they will be back. I don’t care what you are doing for them, they’ll be back.”

Pete estimates he regu-larly pumps gas for about 50 customers. He enjoys it.

“I am a people person — yep — I like people,” he said.

Pete Adams pumps gas for a customer

at Pete’s Southside Marathon in Niles.

Leader photo/CRAIG HAUPERT

Pete Adams talks tires with Richard Dragomer in this picture taken at Pete’s Southside Marathon in 1974.


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By JOHN EBYjohn.eby

@leaderpub.com

Pastor John Kasper will be leaving Dowagiac and First United Methodist Church after seven years for a new assignment July 1 in Clare, Isabella Coun-ty.

In Dowagiac, he has been especially involved with ACTION, Area Churches Together in One Network, which represen-tatives from 10 churches formed on Jan. 7, 2009.

As a Rotarian, he was in line to follow current President Robert Wagel and next president, Prose-cutor Victor Fitz, as the service club’s leader.

Kasper came to FUMC July 1, 2006, from five years at Galien and Olive

Branch United Methodist Churches.

The latter is three miles south of the Berrien County village.

The Ionia native served Hersey United Methodist Church east of Reed City and north of Big Rapids for seven years prior to Galien.

Kasper, oldest of six sons, “fully intended to follow in my father’s foot-steps in the floral business he began in Ionia,” and worked with him for 15 years, managing the store. “After that,” he said, “God began in little ways to work on my life. All my high school training was business-oriented be-cause I intended to go into business with Dad, then felt there was maybe an-other way God wanted me

to go, so I began pursuing it. It turned out God had one of my other brothers in mind for that store.”

Moving to Galien made Kasper realize “there in-deed is a 51st state no one else knows about called Michiana.”

Kasper graduated from high school in 1978 in Io-nia. From 1979 to 1981 he attended Calvin College in Grand Rapids before returning to work with his father.

He completed his bach-elor’s degree in organiza-tional leadership through Cornerstone University in Grand Rapids.

He and his wife, Debbi, have five children: Faith; Anika, who graduated from Buchanan High School in 2006; Caleb; Amelia; and Gabriel.

“Dowagiac was pretty much all new to me,” Kasper said. “The only real connection I had prior to this was Pastor Bill Doubblestein,” who came two years before him. “He was not only a colleague, but a good friend of mine. I knew about Dowagiac through him.”

Doubblestein retired af-ter being in the ministry since 1974, but like his predecessor, the Rev. R. Paul Doherty, stayed with the same congregation for 17 years.

Doubblestein, a Way-land native, started in Dowagiac July 1, 2004, from Byron Center.

The late Rev. Doherty came to Dowagiac from Constantine in 1987.

Pastor on the moveDowagiac man takes on new assignment

Leo “Doc” Flory, author of “Transition to Duty” — a combat medic’s tour in Vietnam with the 101st Air-borne Screaming Eagles” — will speak at the Dowa-giac Rotarians fifth annual “Family and Friends of Ro-tary” dinner meeting at 6 p.m. April 11 at Elks Lodge 889, 300 Riverside Drive.

Tickets cost $20 and may be reserved by calling 782-6262 by April 3. Menu choices include grilled shrimp, pork loin or vege-table mostaccioli.

Flory, a lifelong Decatur resident, will share some of the stories that capture his personal experiences of combat and saving lives during his 1969 tour of duty in Vietnam.

Col. Pierce Graney (ret.), former commander of Co B 2nd Bn 501st Infantry, Air-borne, gives Flory’s book high praise when he says in the book’s foreword, “Any-one who claims to be a his-torian or student of this pe-riod of the war and cites studies from the ‘Pentagon Papers,’ ‘The Best and Brightest’ or Vann’s ‘Bright Shining Lie’ must also have

a work like this on his shelf or he has missed the per-sonal experiences and in-sights of the almost 10 per-cent of the ’60s generation who chose to serve the na-tion honorably.”

Flory wrote his book in 2011 as a result of an email message that a young wom-an sent to all the email ad-dresses she found on the military website, www.b2501airborne.com. She hoped to find someone who might have information about her uncle who was killed at FSB Airborne on May 13, 1969. She wanted to piece together his mili-tary life in hopes of getting to know him.

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Ivan Hammel shares stories of protecting president

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Ivan Hammel, born and raised in Benton Harbor until he dropped out and entered the Army, knew Clinton from weekly cof-fees when the former was a bodyguard and the latter was Arkansas governor.

“I had been telling peo-ple I knew him, and every-body thought I was pulling their leg,” Hammel said. “My job was to hold the elevators and make sure nobody got on. He (Clin-ton) got out of his car and said, ‘Is that you, Ivan? When your shift’s over, come talk to me.’ ”

He and Clinton shared a meal together.

“I just happened to be in the right place at the right time and did my job right and got promoted to secu-rity supervisor. In a hotel, you’re always dealing with

the public. I’ve been lucky through the years, meeting people,” he said.

Ivan’s security work for four years at Fairmont Ho-tel in New Orleans in-volved protecting Presi-dent Bill Clinton and Vice President Al Gore.

Hammel, 64, of Waterv-liet, would still be living in Louisiana had Hurricane Katrina not destroyed his house in 2005.

Hammel shared another story on a recent visit to Silverbrook Manor in Niles: He blocked the way for Ed “Too Tall” Jones, who played 15 years for the Dallas Cowboys.

At Super Bowl XII, when the Cowboys defeat-ed the Denver Broncos 27-10 on Jan. 15, 1978, for their second title at the Su-perdome, he was guarding the door at a $500-a-plate meal when Jones ap-proached.

“You had to wear a big, pink Super Night at the Super Bowl button,” Ham-mel said, and Jones wasn’t.

Jones called his supervi-sor over.

“I wouldn’t let him in,” Hammel said. “I didn’t know the first thing about football, so I didn’t know he was a star player. Too Tall Jones thought it was funny.”

Guests also included Lo-retta Lynn, Paul Williams, Bernadette Peters and Redd Foxx.

As he circulated through the ballroom in his uni-form, Billy Carter stopped him and wanted to try on his hat.

Then President Jimmy Carter’s brother wanted Hammel to sit down for a beer.

Hammel explained he couldn’t drink while on duty, so he had to summon his supervisor again.

“What did you do this time?” his supervisor be-gan.

“I’ll tell you what,” Carter said. “If you don’t let him sit down and drink a beer with me, you won’t have a job come Monday because I’ll buy the damn company and he’ll be your boss.”

“So, I got paid on duty by the company to drink beer with Billy Carter,” he said. “I’ve done a lot of in-teresting things.”

The incident Hammel particularly remembers was the “doped-up, high” guy who broke into a doc-tors’ convention.

“I caught him coming out of the room, and he ran,” he recalled. “He would have outrun me, but he messed up because he didn’t know where he was going and he tried to go down an inside fire escape. He went all the way down

Security speaks

See SPEAKS, page 2

to the laundry room. I was on the landing, so I jumped over the guardrail, landed on his back and we were fighting on the floor. He was so high, he bit me.”

Hammel extends his scarred hand.

“I had to get tested for

AIDS every six months to make sure I didn’t have it.”

Hammel is a member of the North Berrien County Military Rites Team, be-longs to the American Le-gion in Coloma and is a National Rifle Association member.

Leader photo/JOHN EBY

Ivan Hammel spoke last month at Silverbrook Manor.

TRAV

ELTR

AVEL


Indiana Uplands becomes American Viticulture Area

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Living 50 Plus Half Page 3-13.indd 1 2/27/2013 3:29:01 PM

By HOWARD W.HEWITT

Specialto Leader Publications

The Indiana’s Uplands region being declared an American Viticulture Area Feb. 12 is good news for all Midwestern wineries.

The U.S. wine industry is driven by tourism. For those who take wine seri-ously and want to learn more about wine, hitting up AVA-designated areas assures a level of serious winemaking and even quality.

Michigan leads the way in the Midwest with four AVAs: Fennville, Leelanau Peninsula, Lake Michigan Shore and Old Mission Peninsula. Ohio has four AVAS: Lake Erie, Isle St. George, Grand River Valley and Loramie Creek. Illinois has the Shawnee Hills AVA and

shares the Upper Mississippi AVA with Minnesota, Iowa and Wisconsin.

The Ohio River Valley AVA is shared by Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana. Kentucky has no other designated grape produc-tion area and Indiana did not until the Uplands announcement.

“It just kind of affirms what we already know that we have some excel-lent grape-growing regions and they’re unique here in the Midwest,” said Bruce Bordelon, a viticulture specialist at Purdue University. “The Uplands region is different than southwest Indiana. Posey County and Gibson County have different cli-mate and soils. There really is a difference in the (grapes) that we grow and the quality that we get

between regions. It’s those little minor differ-ences that makes vintages special and make our vari-etal-labeled wines spe-cial.”

Oliver Winery, near Bloomington, Ind., is one of the Midwest’s largest. With production in the 400,000-case range, busi-ness is good. But Oliver embraced the Uplands news every bit as much as the other eight wineries in the Uplands.

“It allows us to qualify as a true viticulture area and raise the level of awareness that there is something special about this region,” said Kathleen Oliver, the winery’s exec-utive vice president. “Hopefully, we’ll be able to capitalize on that by saying there is something really unique about these wines. We are producing great quality wines; we

can do it just like Napa and Sonoma. We are something special. And it gives us the opportunity to look for a more premi-um price.”

The nine established wineries in the Uplands AVA are Best Vineyards Winery, Elizabeth; Brown County Winery, Nashville; Butler Winery, Bloomington; Carousel Winery, Bedford; French Lick Winery, West Baden Springs; Huber Winery, Starlight; Oliver Winery, Bloomington; Turtle Run Winery, Corydon; and Winzerwald Winery, Bristow.

Jim Butler, Butler Winery also near Bloomington, spent nearly 10 years working to achieve the AVA designa-tion. He agreed that Indiana has a niche with white Traminette and red Chambourcin wines that

are grown throughout the Midwest and excel in the Uplands region. But he also sees other wines doing well and a future for more traditional plantings.

“Late harvest Vignoles and Vidal does wonderful-ly,” Butler said. “We’ve been doing Chardonnel. I think we’re going to see some more viniferas (think traditional wine grapes) planted. It takes four years to plant a vine and then get your first crop. It’s going to be a decades-plus pro-cess to zero in on those varieties that are going to give us the product that we want.”

The 4800-square-mile Uplands AVA stretches from the Morgan-Monroe County line near Bloomington south to the Ohio River. The east-west boundaries run from Jasper in Dubois County to Knobstone Ridge near Starlight, overlooking the Ohio River Valley.

Howard W. Hewitt, Crawfordsville, Ind., writes about wine every other week for 22 newspapers in three states. You can con-tact him with questions or comments at [email protected].

TRAV

ELTR

AVEL

Oliver Winery produces in Bloomington, Ind.


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Two years ago, Ruth Maxey was raising six children, including twin granddaughters, a niece and the girl’s three sib-lings. She was also in her 60s. It got to be too much.

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and in January 2011 Max-ey had a stroke, not long after she retired from a de-manding job as a hospital administrator.

She has high blood pres-sure, which is a risk factor, but “I’m sure the job and raising the kids and the rip-pin’ and runnin’ had some-thing to do with it,” she said.

After her stroke, the three oldest children moved in with their grand-mother in Rockford, and Maxey focused on raising the other three, including her two grandchildren, whose mother had died of complications from child-birth.

“I guess all would be good if I was 35 and I had the energy to keep up with them,” said Maxey, 64, who decided to retire to fo-cus on the kids. “I don’t have the energy, but I love them.”

Raising children can be taxing at any age, but it can put even more physical and emotional strain on an old-er person.

Poor health, in turn can make it more difficult for some grandparents to per-form caregiving duties. Some research has found that grandparent-caregivers experience depression, high blood pressure and other health problems at higher rates than their

peers who are not raising children.

“Considering the chang-es related to aging — hear-ing loss, vision impair-ment, gait abnormalities, cognitive decline, among many others — grandpar-ents face significant emo-tional and physical chal-lenges as they try to ‘keep up’ with toddlers, tweens, teenagers and pre-adults,” said Dr. June McKoy, a Northwestern University geriatrician.

Rising numbers

Most people assume that their full-time child-rearing responsibilities will end once their children are grown and out of the house, but millions of grandparents across the country find themselves nurturing another genera-tion.

Their numbers have ris-en steadily over the years. Among the reasons: an ill-ness, death, addiction, mental illness, incarcera-tion or military deploy-ment on the part of one or both of the child’s parents.

The prolonged economic downturn also has taken a toll on some families. Of course, not all grandpar-ents wind up caring for children under such diffi-cult circumstances.

“With some families,

what you see is shared par-enting across the genera-tions and a family adapting in a very positive way, such as helping a young parent going to school care for the child until the par-ent can assume more of the responsibilities,” said James Gleeson, an associ-ate professor at the Jane Addams College of Social Work at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

And some grandparents say their grandkids help them stay active. Grand-parent caregiving crosses income, racial and other demographic categories, Gleeson said, though Afri-can Americans are two to three times as likely to be raised by a relative other than a parent, compared with other racial and ethnic groups. About a third of grandparents caring for grandchildren are single.

Nationwide in 2011, about 7 million grandpar-ents lived with a grand-child younger than 18, and about 39 percent of them were primarily responsible for meeting their grand-kids’ basic needs.

In Illinois, grandparents were living with their mi-nor grandchildren in more than 270,000 households. In 99,000 of them, an older adult had taken on primary responsibility for meeting the basic needs of at least

one grandchild. Daxa Sanghvi, caregiver

specialist at the Kenneth Young Center in Elk Grove Village, said participants in a support group she facili-tates for grandparents rais-ing grandchildren often share concerns about the impact of caregiving on their health. Sanghvi said many of the grandparents say they are stressed out and that conflicts about the grandchildren sometimes arise between them and their spouses.

Going, going, going

“They have no time, no energy and emotionally they are really deflated,” she said. “They are not even thinking about them-selves because they are go-ing, going, going.”

Many of the grandpar-ents she works with are sleep-deprived and “trying to do so much it affects their emotional state as well as their physical s tate,” Sanghvi said. “Sometimes, they don’t even realize how much it is affecting them.”

One of those grandpar-ents, Suzanne Kowalski, was so absorbed with tak-ing care of two of her grandchildren that she ig-nored a dimple on her left breast that turned out to be a sign of cancer. By the

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time she sought medical care and got diagnosed a year later, in September 2011, it had spread to her lymph nodes.

“Had I not been raising the grandkids, I would have gone to the doctor at least a year earlier because I wouldn’t have been so fi-nancially strapped,” she said.

“My energy level would not have been so low. ... I was giving all my attention to them.”

Kowalsk i sa id she doesn’t regret taking the children in.

“Every choice I made was my choice and I would do it again,” said Kowals-

ki, who lives in Mount Prospect, Ill.

“I believed they didn’t deserve any less than my full attention. In hindsight, I could have taken better care of myself so I could be better for them. But you live and you learn and sometimes you learn when it’s too late.”

In March, after eight years, she decided to turn over custody of the chil-dren to their father, her son-in-law. Without the kids, Kowalski says, she is paying more attention to her health.

— Deborah SheltonThe Chicago Tribune

(MCT)


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Losing a loved one is a life-changing event and there are so many decisions to make in such a short and very difficult and emotional time. We were blessed to have Brown Funeral Home assist us with final arrangements for our mothers, Evelyn Cripe and

Wanda Stevens. From our very first meeting, we felt comfortable with their staff as they helped us choose the best way possible to honor our loved ones. Our families were very pleased with the arrangements provided by the Brown Funeral Home. We were impressed not only with their professionalism and their lovely facility, but also with the caring way they

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A struggling economy can have both instant and longterm consequences. When the economy is suf-fering, consumers tend to spend less in the short term while making financial de-cisions that affect them over the long haul.

One of the biggest quan-daries men and women face during a recession or economic downturn is how to approach their retire-ment accounts, most nota-bly a 401(k). When the economy begins to strug-gle, men and women may notice their 401(k) plans are struggling right along with it, losing money that most were counting for their retirements. This can induce a certain degree of panic, as account holders worry about their financial futures and how they are going to get by should the recession last and their re-tirement accounts continue to shrink.

But such panic might be unwarranted. According to the investment manage-

ment firm Vanguard, par-ticipant saving and invest-ing behavior had returned to prerecession levels by 2010, and participant ac-count balances actually rose 13 percent between 2005-2010, despite the considerable market shock that occurred during the re-cession of 2008-2009. Those figures illustrate that even during a particularly bad economic swoon in-vestors will return to their typical behavior sooner rather than later. Therefore, it pays to avoid overreact-ing.

While some people man-age to maintain a cool head during times of eco-nomic struggles, others may lose sleep when the next recession or downturn rears its ugly head. To avoid succumbing to such stress, consider the follow-ing tips to protect your re-tirement accounts should the economy once again take a turn for the worse.n Pay attention to your

portfolio. Young people

just beginning their profes-sional careers are often told to enroll in a 401(k) program as soon as possi-ble, but to avoid making any changes in the near fu-ture once the account has been set up. While no in-vestors, young or old, should allow a knee-jerk reaction after a bad finan-cial quarter to dictate how they manage their retire-ment accounts, that doesn’t mean you should ignore an account entirely. Pay atten-tion to your portfolio, ex-amining it at least once per year so you can make ad-justments to your invest-ments if need be. Just don’t allow a sudden reac-tion to a bad quarter dictate these adjustments, which should only be made after a careful examination of your retirement account’s portfolio and its perfor-mance. If you’re happy with the performance, don’t change a thing.n Reduce your risk as

you age. Financial experts can often predict when the

economy will thrive and when it will struggle. But unless you are such an ex-pert, avoid playing with fire. As you age, reduce your risk with regard to your investments.

Young people can afford to take on more risk be-cause they have more time to make up for a risk that doesn’t work out. Men and women age 50 and older have no such luxury and should reconfigure their retirement accounts as they age so their investments are less risky and more conservative. This strategy should be put to use even if you lost a substantial amount of money during a previous recession or downturn. It might be tempting to try to make up for lost money, but that strategy carries consider-able risk, and you might end up depleting your re-tirement savings a second time.n Spread the money

around. When contributing to a retirement account

such as a 401(k), the stan-dard is to deposit 6 percent of each paycheck into that account. If you’re deposit-ing more than 6 percent into your retirement ac-count, consider decreasing your retirement contribu-tion to the standard amount and depositing the extra money into a high-interest savings account.

The savings account won’t put your deposits at risk, and if the economy is faring well, you will still be doing well with your 401(k) while ensuring some of your money won’t suffer should the economy suddenly take a turn for the worse.n Don’t cash out too

early. When the economy struggles, many investors have discovered they sim-ply don’t have the stomach for investing. That’s per-fectly understandable with certain investments, but a retirement account should not be one of them.

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Economic quandariesWhat to do with your retirement account before the next economic downturn


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If you’re like many Americans, you have concerns about funding your retire-ment. According to a recent survey con-ducted by Ally Bank, retirement planning tops Americans’ financial anxieties.

Will you be able to afford a comfortable retirement?

Rather than take a head-in-the-sand approach to your future, be proactive. Wise investments can offer advantages like tax-free, aggressive growth. And ex-perts say the best time to get started is now.

“The first few months of 2013 will be ideal for opening IRAs, as contribu-tions made in this time-frame may be counted on 2012 tax returns,” advises Diane Morais, Ally Bank Product & Innovation ex-ecutive.

“Existing savers looking to grow their retirement nest egg securely may want to consider a rollover

of their existing IRAs or qualified retirement plans, and it is important to shop around for the most com-petitive interest rate to en-sure the best return on their investments.”

And the IRS announced in October 2012 that the limit on contributions to Traditional and Roth IRAs would rise for the first time since 2008, from $5,000 to $5,500.

“The increased contribu-tion limit for 2013 makes now a prime opportunity for people of all ages to contribute meaningfully to their retirement savings,” Morais emphasizes.

Looking to boost your retirement readiness se-curely? Here are some im-portant things to consider:

n The most common IRA plans are Traditional, Roth and Simplified Em-ployee Pension IRAs. De-pending on age and taxable income, you could have more than one IRA plan to choose from to help you meet your goals.

n Once you choose an IRA plan, you can typical-ly select from a variety of products, from lower risk savings accounts and cer-tificates of deposit (CD) to higher risk stocks, bonds and mutual funds.

n For secure growth, consider CDs and online savings accounts. Such products are less risky than stocks.

Or roll over existing

IRAs, 401(k) or 403(b)s into one IRA with great, stable rates.

n Look beyond branch banks. For example, a bank with no physical locations, such as Ally Bank, can of-fer competitive rates, low fees and round-the-clock, live customer support.

n Be advised, there are restrictions as to how you can add money to IRAs based on age and when you can use the money you’ve saved. Your tax professional can help you determine the best plan for your needs.

Above all, look for straightforward retirement products that will help you get closer to your retire-ment savings goals.

n Don’t be afraid to move around your retire-ment money to make the

most of it. A direct roll over is fairly

easy and avoids the tax withholding and associated reporting requirements of a personal withdrawal trans-action.

n You can convert your Traditional IRA to a Roth IRA. Beginning in 2010, eligibility requirements based on income and mari-tal status were eliminated.

Every day you wait is another day your retire-ment money isn’t growing. Whether you’re just get-ting started or building on current savings, there’s no time like the present to make a contribution to your retirement account.

More information about retirement savings plans is at www.ally.com/bank/ira/.

— StatePoint

By VONDA VANTIL

Social Security pub-lic affairs specialist

Your age at the time you start receiv-ing Social Security retirement makes a difference in the ben-efit amount. The full retirement age (the age at which 100 per-cent of retirement benefits are payable) has been rising from 65 to age 67.

You can take “early retirement” as early as 62, but if you start collecting benefits be-fore reaching full re-tirement age, your monthly payment will be reduced. Find out what your full retire-ment age is by refer-ring to the convenient chart at www.so-cialsecurity.gov/re-tire2/retirechart.htm

You also can keep working beyond your full retirement age to take advantage of a larger payment.

Age matters


14

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Sharing...Life’s Journey.

Semester Begins in March

The digital age is making aging a whole lot easier. From talking pill dis-pensers to tracking devices tucked in-side tennis shoes to digital medical scanners that can transmit vital signs to the doctor, today’s gadgets help seniors stay in their homes and can give relief to loved ones and caregivers.

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Digital era makes aging easierTechnology allows more seniors to stay in their homes

Thompsoncenter.missouri.edu photo illustration


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Caring for families since 1953

FREE FUNERAL PRE- PLANNING CONSULTATION

To request your FREE consultation by mail, please send us the following information:

Name: ___________________________

Phone: ___________________________

Address: _________________________

City: __________State: ___Zip: _____

Return to Mission Hills 61453 N M-51 Niles, MI 49120

We may not want to think about it, but it simply makes sense to sit down and think about what type of final arrangements

we’d prefer in the event of our death. For financial and personal reasons, advance planning for ourselves or another family member is a smart decision. Not only can we rest assured our final wishes will be followed, but all prepaid funerals are frozen at today’s costs and fully insured. Perhaps most importantly, preplanning takes some of the emotional, and at times financial, burden off the shoulders of loved ones during a difficult time. We specialize in helping people make those important and often tough decisions that would otherwise be left to family members. Our friendly staff is available to advise and counsel you, without charge or obligation, regarding prearrangement. Call or stop in today for more information about our services and flexible preplanning payment options.

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Independently owned & operated • Bert Edquist

Semester Begins in March

“It gives them peace of mind,” Ed Rockett, 83, said of his sons.

The Farmington Hills resident, a retired educator, said he doesn’t mind the pleasant digital voice from his pill dispenser that re-minds him in the morning and evening that it’s time for his meds.

Nor does it bother him that his son, a three-hour drive away, is sent a short video each time the senior Rockett walks into the path of a motion-sensor activat-ed camera in his dining area where he takes his pills.

Near Houghton Lake, an e-mail pings the smart-phone of Rockett’s son, also named Ed, to let him know a new video is avail-able.

The younger Rockett said he glances at the video to make sure his father is moving around easily:

“It’s not so much about him taking his medicine. It’s nice to see him and we joke. I can say ‘Hey, you’re wearing the same shirt as yesterday.’ We have a good time with it.”

The new gadgets — once available only to hospitals and the wealthiest consum-ers — are accessible now to more modest-income homes.

Helpful products

Advocates say it’s best to consult with health care providers for suggestions on what to use.

n Pill dispensers: Some not only dis-pense an allotted number of pills at pre-set times, they allow caregivers to record mes-sages and they also send out alerts through a resident’s phone line if pills go untouched. Southfield-based Guardian Alarm sells sev-eral types at www.guardianmedicalmonitor-ing.com. Guardian’s dispensers are electric, with a battery backup. --Emergency buttons: Personal Emergency Response Systems, or PERS, are provided by many home security systems, allowing seniors to call for help if they’ve fallen or are suddenly disoriented. They can be worn as a pendant or wrist-band. Through Guardian, the average monthly monitoring fee is about $30; set-up or activation is usually less than $50. New-er versions offered elsewhere also contain a sort of gyroscope that senses if the wearer falls. Some emergency systems don’t re-quire a security system to be hooked up. Rather, a wireless signal prompts a phone to call programmed numbers such as 911 or a family member.

n Stove-top sensors: Special stoves come equipped with a Safe-T-element cook-ing system that automatically switches off the stove top if the temperature exceeds 700 degrees, said Kevin Callahan, CEO of Ontario-based Pioneering Technology, the manufacturer. Costs vary, depending on the stove. At www.thiscaringhome.org, the burn-

ers cost $170, plus installation. For informa-tion, go to www.pioneeringtech.com. Unat-tended stove tops and cooking fires caused an estimated 156,400 fires and 420 deaths in 2010, according to the National Fire Protection Association.

n Tele-health sensors: A number of de-vices can measure a person’s vital signs — weight, blood pressure, blood sugar, for ex-ample— and send the readings to doctors or caregivers. The devices are good especially for seniors who have difficulty finding trans-portation for frequent visits to the doctor. The devices provide doctors with better, more-complete health monitoring. Purchas-ing an entire system can cost more than $1,000 but offer not only easy-to-read, touch-screen consoles that track vital sign readings but also photos, files and messag-es from loved ones. Caregivers log on re-motely with a password. Go to www.grand-care.com.

n Phones: New phones come equipped with large buttons and video screens that can make it easier for a person to keep in touch or call for emergency help. The VTech CareLine, for example, features buttons that can be fitted with loved ones’ pictures and it comes with a pendant that can be used to send an alert should a person fall or face another emergency situation. Unlike safety pendants connected to an alarm system, there is no monthly fee. Go to www.vtech-phones.com.

n Movement trackers: A number of trackers are on the market for those with memory problems, but Los Angeles-based GTX, has teamed up with New Jersey-based shoe manufacturer Aetrex Worldwide to pro-vide shoes with GPS trackers inconspicu-ously stitched inside. GPS trackers in cell phones, or placed in a car or purse may be left behind — but even a fading memory that can no longer recall the names of loved ones holds fast to a lifetime of routine. “They just have to remember to put on their shoes,” said Patrick Bertagna, CEO of GTX. Go to www.navistargpsshoe.com.

n Alarm systems: For loved ones in dan-ger of wandering off at night, door and win-dow alarms that start at less than $50 can be installed on windows and doors, alerting others in the home. Similar alarms can be placed in beds or chairs or around toilets. Go to www.alzstore.com or www.telehealth-sensors.com.

n Camera-monitoring: The Virtually There Care Monitor, like others, allows loved ones to check in on seniors from miles away. Set up discreetly anywhere in the home, it can record videos at pre-set times or be programmed to allow live remote view-ing through a password-protected website. Generally, the lens is trained on commonly-traveled areas of the home: hallways, living rooms or kitchens, for example, said Laura Seriguchi, director of business development for Guardian Medical Monitoring, which pro-vides the monitoring.


Boomers turn passion into new job

16

For many years, the average 50-something American looked forward to a leisure-based retirement.

But as Americans are living longer and feeling younger, many are finding it necessary to remain professionally active beyond traditional retirement age — forging new paths that supply both money and meaning.

“Boomers are opting to stay in the game, or better, change the game by leaving a mark and making a difference,” says Marci Alboher, vice president of Encore.org, an organization helping people transition to the nonprofit world and public sector.

While moving into a

new kind of work is not always quick or easy, some experts say that middle-aged Americans are well-equipped to handle it.

“With midlife comes a newfound capacity to tap into your accumulated experience and wisdom to accomplish new things you may have been unable to do earlier,” says Alboher, whose new book “The Encore Career Handbook,” is a comprehensive guide for anyone looking to make such a shift.

Whether you’re looking to jump right in or make a plan first, here are some tips and things to consider:

n Your new work may

involve a trade-off. You may trade money for meaning and flexibility. You may trade power and influence for the chance to work more closely with people you can help.

n Transitions will take longer than you think, so be patient.

n Be prepared to face age discrimination. You can counter employer prejudices by ensuring your skills are up to snuff, especially when it comes to technology.

Show you understand the job market today by having a great LinkedIn profile. Consider tailoring your resume to show your strengths as an adviser and mentor.

n Don’t be discouraged by today’s tight job market. The nonprofit sector has added jobs over the past decade and our government’s need for highly skilled employees in a variety of sectors continues to grow. Between now and 2018, experts say that there may be as many as 1.7 million jobs available at all levels of government.

n Instead of jobs, think about projects. Instead of thinking about what you want to do forever, think about what you want to work on for a year or two. Think about a series of engaging commitments with periodic gaps for a personal break, retraining or travel in between.

n Rarely can you find and craft the job opportunity you want, simply by applying to job postings.

Create your role through networking, volunteering and retooling for a new kind of work. Consider going solo as a freelancer, consultant or entrepreneur.

Don’t approach your mid-life and beyond with trepidation.

With skills, experience and care, you can launch a successful new career that combines your passion with a paycheck.

For tips on making the most of this chapter of your life and work, visit www.encore.org.

— StatePoint

CARE

ERCA

REER

living 50+ march 2013

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