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A colorful look at life after 50
Spring 2019
Kaleidoscope
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Kaleidoscope Spring 2019
When it’s time for hospice, ask for us by name.
www.serenityhospiceandhome.org * 815-732-2499
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Kaleidoscope Spring 2019
Kaleidoscope
WHAT’SINSIDE
Publisher Don T. Bricker
Paws patrol
General Manager/ Advertising Director Jennifer Heintzelman
A Mount Carroll man went from a longtime lawman to business owner and never missed a beat
Advertising Sales Luke Eisenberg
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Magazine Editor & Page Design Rusty Schrader
Steps in the right direction
Articles and advertisements are the property of Sauk Valley Media, P.O. Box 498, Sterling, IL 61081, 815-625-3600. No portion of this publication may be reproduced without the written consent of the publisher. Ad content is not the responsibility of Sauk Valley Media. The information in this guide is believed to be accurate; however, Sauk Valley Media cannot and does not guarantee its accuracy. Sauk Valley Media cannot and will not be held liable for the quality or performance of goods and services provided by advertisers listed in any portion of this magazine.
It’s not too late to change unhealthy habits – just take 10 steps in the right direction (but don’t forget to put on your sneakers first)
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Watching your health An Apple a day won’t keep the doctor away, but it’ll help you when you fall, and it’ll keep an eye on your heartbeat too
LOTS-
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MOVING
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Kaleidoscope Spring 2019
PAWS
Patrol Mount Carroll man went from a longtime lawman to business owner and never missed a beat BY PHILLIP HARTMAN For Sauk Valley Media
During his time as a cop, Joe Avila’s collars used to come with handcuffs. Now they come with a leash. After nearly 25 years as a beat cop with the Chicago Police Department, Joe Avila has found a new home in Mount Carroll, where he’s parlayed his passion for pets into a business, Bonnie May Pet Services. He started the dog training and boarding business in 2011 in Chicago, then moved to Arizona, where he sold pet products and provided pet boarding services for horses, goats and rabbits. CONTINUED ON PAGE 64 Joseph Avila and Cleobell take a walk around Mount Carroll. Avila owns and operates Bonnie May Pet Services. He says he has a special connection with his pets – “I call them my kids” – and he strives to give that same kind of care to his clients’ pets. Alex T. Paschal/apaschal@saukvalley.com
Kaleidoscope Spring 2019
Timber Lake Playhouse (TLP), the professional summer theatre of northwestern Illinois, has the shows you will love: hot new shows just leaving Broadway, great American plays, everyone’s “old favorite” musicals, and the best in country, pop, and rock-n-roll revues in our “JukeBox Series.” Timber Lake Playhouse hires the best young theatrical talent from all over the United States, and we regularly bring back talented alumni who have gone on to stellar careers on Broadway, TV and Film. Noted past performers are Tony Winning Actress Jayne Houdyshell, Michael Gross (Family Ties), Jennifer Garner and Saundra Santiago (Miami Vice, Guiding Light, The Sopranos, and Broadway's Evita and more). Santiago last appeared at TLP in 2016 as Rose in Gypsy. Located just south of Mount Carroll, Illinois about 10 miles from the Mississippi River, TLP is a short drive from Fulton, Sterling and Rockford, Illinois. The current theatre building opened in 1975 with 371 seats. The building is fully air conditioned, and the nine-acre wooded campus is perfect for any other activity you and your guests desire. From picnicking on the deck overlooking beautiful Timber Lake to attending a pre-show activity in our newly acquired rustic barn, TLP is a great destination for a day of fun. Check out our website at www.timberlakeplayhouse.org for more information about our shows and other activities.
SUMMER SUBSCRIPTION SERIES May 30 through September 2 GET THESE SIX SHOWS FOR THE PRICE OF FOUR
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Magic Owl Children’s Theatre May 7 - 11 Telling stories that inspire & entertain
8215 BLACK OACK ROAD • MOUNT CAROLL, IL 61053 815.244.2035 • WWW.TIMBERLAKEPLAYHOUSE.ORG
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Joseph Avila, shown here with Cleobell, stands by a display at the Kraft Building in Mount Carroll with some of the pet food products he sells. He had been selling items out of Bald Guyz Coffee & Bistro, but switched to selling via his website, bonniemaypetservices.com, after the restaurant closed. Avila has found that many of his clients want to feed their dogs quality dog food, such as Bobbi Painter, BilJac, Taste of the Wild, Fromm Family Pet Food, Pro Pac, Merrick and others. Alex T. Paschal/apaschal@saukvalley.com
3CONTINUED FROM PAGE 4 Avila later moved to the Carroll and JoDaviess county area, working for 2 1/2 years with Safe Haven Humane Society in Elizabeth. Now 60, he lives in Mount Carroll with his Belgian Malinois dogs, Cleobell and Simba. “I call them my kids. I’ve got a special connection with dogs,” Avila said. The company is named for Bonnie May, one of Avila’s dogs that passed away. In addition to boarding dogs – only small ones right now – Avila trains dogs and sells specialty pet items. He had been selling items out of Bald Guyz Coffee & Bistro in Mount Carroll, but switched to selling via his website after the restaurant closed. The website, bonniemaypetservices.com, also features a blog with pet food recalls, tips, and pet product news. “The majority of what I do is selling pet products and classes for dog obedience. The dog walking and dog obedience classes come in spurts,” Avila said. Avila has found that many of his clients want to feed their dogs quality dog food. He orders products from Bobbi Painter, BilJac, Taste of the Wild, Fromm Family Pet Food, Pro Pac, Merrick and other companies. Many of foods he orders are grain-free. He also can get items for cats.
More info Find Bonnie May Kennels on Facebook, go to bonniemaypetservices. com for more information. Call 815590-2440 to schedule and appointment or for more information.
“A lot of them, they’d have to drive to Freeport or Sterling to get these products,” Avila said. He’ll also set up appointments with dog owners for obedience training sessions, and can help housebreak pets. It may seem like a long way, from
serving and protecting to serving and training, but in some ways it’s not all that different. As a beat cop walking the street, somedays Avila’s dogs would start barking. These days, the dogs are still barking, but that’s just fine by him – it’s music to his ears. n
Kaleidoscope Spring 2019
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step Take a
in the
right direction It’s not too late to change unhealthy habits – just take 10 steps in the right direction (but don’t forget to put on your sneakers first) BY BRUCE HOROVITZ Tribune News Service
It takes moxie to flip an unhealthy lifestyle to a healthy one – particularly for people 60 and older.
Sports with speed and intensity, such as tennis, can be important part of seniors’ exercise routine.
CONTINUED ON 104
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Kaleidoscope Spring 2019
One of the steps in the right direction seniors can take on the road to a healthier lifestyle is to swap the sweet breakfasts for a fruit smoothie
3CONTINUED FROM PAGE 8 Most baby boomers approach retirement age unwilling to follow basic healthy lifestyle goals established by the American Heart Association, said Dr. Dana King, professor and chairman of the department of family medicine at West Virginia University, referencing his university’s 2017 study comparing the healthy lifestyle rates of retired late-middle-aged adults with rates among those still working. Kaiser Health News interviewed three other prominent experts on aging and health about how seniors can find the will to adopt healthier habits. “People do financial planning for retirement, but what about retirement health planning?” King said. Motivated seniors can begin by following Kaiser’s 10-step program: 1. Buy great sneakers. Purchase a pair of top-quality sneakers specifically designed for walking, said Carolyn Rosenblatt, founder of AgingParents.com, who started participating in triathlons at age 63 and continues to do them at age 70. Start by walking around the block. Expand that to 30-minute walks at least three times weekly – or set a goal to increase your walking distance 10 percent each week. And leave your sneakers by the front door. 2. Practice your balance. The best way to avoid falls is to retain a good sense of balance, said Rosenblatt. Practice standing on one leg with your eyes closed for at least 30 seconds. 3. Improve your breakfast. Stop eating the sweet roll with coffee. Consider substituting a home-blended smoothie with a banana, seasonal fruits, almond milk and protein powder or a protein patty without sugar. And cut out excess sugar in all your meals, Rosenblatt said. Replace soda with seltzer water. 4. De-stress wisely. Find ways to manage your stress that don’t involve food, alcohol or smoking. There are lots of meditation programs you can download on your phone and listen to for even 10 minutes, said Rosenblatt. CONTINUED ON 114
Welcome to a gracious affordable assisted lifestyle in your community Daniel is a new member of the Heritage Woods Community. Daniel was in great need of our services. He was worried that moving here would be like his first day of school, but much to his surprise, he has been welcomed with open arms. Daniel said, “The staff and other residents have made it a smooth transition, I should have moved here a while ago.” He is enjoying freedom from cooking, cleaning, making household repairs, and shoveling snow! Daniel can frequently be found visiting, playing games with other residents or putting puzzles together.
A financial assistance program is available to those who qualify, making the Heritage Woods lifestyle affordable to all.
www.hw-sterling-slf.com 2205 Oak Grove Ave, Sterling (3 blocks N. of W. LeFevre) 815-625-7045 • Managed by Gardant Management Solutions
Kaleidoscope Spring 2019
Unity Hospice...
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To help keep their muscle mass in shape, aging adults should do resistance training, such as using barbells. 3CONTINUED FROM PAGE 10 5. Practice resistance training. To keep your muscle mass from disappearing, do resistance training by lifting dumbbells or barbells or using weight machines, said Kay Van Norman, owner of Brilliant Aging, a consulting firm for healthier aging. “Your muscles are amazing, but if you don’t use them, you lose them,” she said. 6. Hit the floor. Aging adults need to regularly practice getting down on the floor and standing back up again. “If you don’t get down on the floor and back up, you won’t be able to do it after a while,” said Van Norman. 7. Challenge your speed. While it might not seem as if folks over 60 need to worry about exercise that involves speed and intensity, they do, said Van Norman. “Most people don’t even think about speed in order to stay healthy. But tennis players are doing that all the time. You need to do something to challenge your speed, not just your power.” That’s why sports like tennis can be terrific as you age, she said. 8. Believe in yourself. Faced with self-doubt and depression after several tragic, challenging events, Sharon Sultan Cutler, 71, turned to therapy to help her feel better about herself. “The first person you have to believe in is yourself,” said Sultan Cutler, an author. “People like to be around other people who believe in themselves.” 9. Tackle a project. Pick a project that has meaning to you. Sultan Cutler opted to co-author (with two other writers) her first book, “Bandstand Diaries: The Philadelphia Years, 19561963,” an inside look at her once favorite TV show, Dick Clark’s “American Bandstand.” Never mind that she’d never written a book before. Now she’s on her third book, “Your New You After 65: Valuable Advice to Inspire Your Awesome Aging.” “It’s like having a daydream that you can actually make happen,” she said. 10. Embrace self-improvement. Some call this lifelong learning. Living a healthier lifestyle requires constant learning and self-improvement, said Sultan Cutler. Seek out local learning resources like community colleges, where classes are often steeply discounted for seniors, she said. “Self-improvement isn’t just physical. It’s mental, too.” n
Compassionate care is at the very heart of what we do and why we exist. Let your hometown hospice show you how we can be the trusted choice for your loved one. Contact Us Today
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Kaleidoscope Spring 2019
Watching your health An Apple a day won’t keep the doctor away, but it’ll help you when you fall, and keep an eye on your heartbeat too BY RACHEL BLUTH Tribune News Service
For more than a decade, the latest Apple products have been a must-have for the tech-savvy – particularly the younger ones. But with the latest Apple Watch, the company is hoping to broaden its base and attract customers who remember when watches still had hands. CONTINUED ON PAGE 134
Billed as “part guardian, part guru,” the latest Apple Watch includes new features designed to detect falls and heart problems. If a fall is detected, the watch will alert the user and call emergency services.
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Kaleidoscope Spring 2019 3CONTINUED FROM PAGE 12 At first glance, the watch appears to be an ideal present for Apple’s most familiar market: the hip early adopters. Its promotional website is full of svelte young people stretching into yoga poses, kickboxing and playing basketball. But when Apple introduced its latest model in September – the Series 4, which starts around $399 – it was clear that it was expanding its target audience. This Apple Watch includes new features designed to detect falls and heart problems. With descriptions like “part guardian, part guru” and “designed to improve your health … and powerful enough to protect it,” Apple signaled its move toward preventive health and a much wider demographic. The watch represents the beginning of what analysts agree will be a wave of new health apps and wearable health trackers. “The health care market is obviously important to Apple,” Andy Hargreaves, an Apple analyst with KeyBanc Capital Markets, wrote in an email. The fall prevention and electrocardiogram apps are a “play to sell people more stuff” and bring health-monitoring apps beyond just “fitness people” to baby boomers who want to keep themselves and their
parents healthy, he said. This watch could be a perfect fit for those older people, said Laura Martin, a senior analyst with Needham. “People who wore watches their whole lives, plus fall monitoring?” Martin said. “Voila! It creates another on-ramp for another consumer in the Apple ecosystem.” The fall-monitoring app uses sensors in the watchband, which are enabled for people 65 and older after they input their ages. These sensors track and record the user’s movements, and note whether the wearer’s gait becomes unsteady. If a fall is detected, the watch sends its wearer a notification. If the wearer doesn’t respond within a minute by tapping a button on the watch to deactivate this signal, emergency services will be alerted that the wearer needs help. That minute also gives the wearer time to prevent false alarms, such as a dropped watch. Many geriatricians and medical experts agree that this app could help older people. Falls can cause fractured hips and head injuries, but even fear of falling can prevent older people from living on their own or participating in activities. Fall deaths in the U.S. increased 30 per-
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cent for older adults in the past decade, and 3 million older people go to the emergency room for fall injuries each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Dr. Armin Shahrokni, an internist with Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center who describes himself as “tech-savvy,” is excited that older patients might get into wearable technology. “In older cancer patients, my area of expertise, all the chemo can make them fall more,” he said, making detecting falls and balance important. The other app, the ECG monitoring app, uses sensors in the wristband to monitor a patient’s heartbeat and send alerts if it gets too fast or too slow. Specifically, the app is meant to detect atrial fibrillation, which is a type of arrhythmia, also described as a problem with the speed or rhythm of the heartbeat. Here is how the app works: The watch’s sensors can detect a heart rhythm in 30 seconds, creating a “waveform” readout. It also allows the user to note how they are feeling – lightheaded, winded, full of energy – at that moment. This combination will help people have better conversations with their doctors about symptoms and heart patterns, according to Apple. CONTINUED ON PAGE 144
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Kaleidoscope Spring 2019
3CONTINUED FROM PAGE 13 The Food and Drug Administration cleared this function for people 22 or older. However, it’s rare for anyone younger than 50 to be diagnosed with atrial fibrillation, said Eric Topol, a cardiologist at the Scripps Research Institute. Doctors have expressed concern that scores of panicked Apple Watch users would flood emergency rooms with every heart rhythm notification and blip. “It’s mass use of a tool, and with that is going to come lots of unintended consequences,” Topol said. “It’ll lead to a lot of anxiety and expense and additional testing, and even then some people will get blood thinners inappropriately. “This is the opposite of individualized medicine, where you are using something on exactly, precisely the right person.”
“I live at the best Assisted Living Community in town. I love it at Morningside.” RESIDENT JAKE W.
Wearables unleashed Consumers can expect more ways to track vital signs, such as blood sugar, and more apps that will use those numbers to help people prevent medical emergencies, said Ross Muken, an analyst with Evercore ISI. While health tracking isn’t a new concept, putting that data into an algorithm to help change behavior and get ahead of a health crisis is the next big frontier for wearable health technology products. Experts caution, though, that while the FDA “cleared” these new apps, it hasn’t “approved” them, which is a bureaucratic distinction that means they haven’t faced as much rigorous testing as something that has the agency’s approval. For example, there are no findings from studies or trials that offer evidence of the fall prevention or ECG apps’ benefits, Topol said. “We don’t have any data to review. These are unknowns.” Someday, he said, he expects the “medicalized smartphone” to be more common, cheaper and accessible. Right now we’re seeing the very beginning of this technology be put into use. “Technology is way ahead of medical practice,” Topol said. n
DANIELLE VANCE, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
CALL DANIELLE AT 815-622-2800 TO LEARN WHY YOU’LL LOVE MORNINGSIDE TOO! 2705 Avenue E Sterling, IL 6108
www.Morningsideo
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Pet Friendly
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The staff treats you very good and genuinely care about you. They know their jo job and make you feel at ease. They don’t push you, but they get the job done. I am originally from Albany, Resthave is close to home and the food is great. I’m happy here and glad I chose Resthave as my new home.
Assisted Living, Skilled & Nursing Care “Over 50 years of Compassionate Christian Care and definitely worth the drive”
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Bus Leaves Polo Bank: 7:30 a.m. Shannon Bank: 8:00 a.m. Performance: 1:30 p.m. Bus Return 6 p.m. Cost $120 This Trip is OPEN TO THE PUBLIC. Deadline for reservations Feb. 28th Contact Maria for reservations 815-864-2111
408 Maple Ave. Ave., Morrison (815) 772 772-4021 4021 www.resthavehome.com Resthave Home is an equal opportunity provider and employer.
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Kaleidoscope Spring 2019
Avonlea Cottage Assisted Living & Memory Care Communities • • • • • •
Beautiful communities within a neighborhood-like setting. Local Medical Director services available on site. Portable X-Ray, EKG, Lab and Podiatry services available on site. 24-hour secure and protective care by an attentive staff of licensed and certified nursing. Variety of entertainment including planned social activities and special events. Covered porch, private courtyard and common sitting areas for peaceful retreats and family gatherings. • Respite and short-term stays available.
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Kaleidoscope Spring 2019
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