Commun ty Matters Wichita Presbyterian Manor
April 2016
Courtesy of ThinkStock
The surprising secret to really aging well By Barbara Knickerbocker Beskind for Next Avenue
As an occupational therapist and someone in my early 90s, here’s what I recommend to age well: good posture and a brisk 30-minute walk daily from early childhood on.This builds bone density and balance reflexes that reduce the impact of falls and injuries in later years. Walking has enormous benefits — emotionally and even creatively — as recent studies show.This is in addition to the well-known benefits to the pulmonary and cardiovascular systems. A sturdy gait pattern with alternating arm/leg movement helps maintain balance reflexes and strength in lateral hip muscles. Good posture goes hand-in-hand with good walking, stride and vertical balance. Going out for a walk midday frees up the frontal lobes from the clutter of study or business.This can enhance creativity as well as reduce stress and/or depression. POSTURE, continued on page 4
Mary Johnson, right, her son Greg, left, and grandson Webster. Greg is a sculptor who created the artwork directly behind them.
Car part art Westerly resident’s son turns auto parts into sculptures Mary Johnson’s son, Greg, has long been known for his talents at restoring wrecked cars. He started doing automotive body repair and painting in high school and opened his own shop in 1979. But Greg had the urge not just to fix, but to create. So, in 1996, he shifted gears. Greg built a sculpture studio in his auto body shop in downtown Wichita, where he fashions large-scale sculpture out of cast-off auto parts. In February, Mary, a resident of The Westerly Residences at Wichita Presbyterian Manor, accompanied more than a dozen of her fellow campus residents on a tour of her son’s studio. “They were all delighted.They said it was the best trip they ever had,” Mary said. The tour drew more men than usual, Mary added, and they were just as entertained by checking out the cars undergoing repair on the body shop side of Greg’s business.The studio, however, is dominated by bold, brightly colored works of art. Greg’s raw material is primarily old fenders, hoods, and other automotive salvage. He reshapes, repaints, and reimagines it as a glorious angel, SCULPTOR, continued on page 2