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Fall 2014 A Colorful Colorful Look at Life After 50

Kaleidoscope Kaleidoscope

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Kaleidoscope 2014

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Kaleidoscope 2014

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What’s inside Publisher: Sam R Fisher Advertising Director: Jennifer Baratta Advertising Sales: Jill Reyna Kelly Shroyer Editors: Larry Lough Marla Seidell Page Design: Marla Seidell

Facilities adding memory care units ................................. Page 4 A life dedicated to service ................................................. Page 12 Seniors sharing homes to save money ............................ Page 16 Sense of smell fades .......................................................... Page 18 True blue since 2010 ......................................................... Page 19 Advice for a happy retirement ......................................... Page 21 Retired teacher volunteers at Merrill School .................. Page 23 Painter has her first showing at 82 ................................... Page 26

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.

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Kaleidoscope 2014

Just like the old days

Philip Marruffo/pmarruffo@saukvalley.com

Lloyd Swan works on a puzzle in the Montessori-based dementia care unit at LifeHOUSE Liberty Court. The senior care center offers residents work stations that help to keep their minds sharp.

Memory care facilities help dementia patients live golden years to the fullest

BY KAYLA HEIMERMAN Special to Kaleidoscope

DIXON – Some older gentlemen putter at a workbench. Some older ladies fold brightly colored towels. Another group of seniors plays games and puts together puzzles.

Just like the old days. Well, sort of like the old days.

The activities – designed to engage residents suffering from Alzheimer’s disease, dementia and other memory issues – are offered in the new memory care wing at LifeHOUSE Liberty

Court in Dixon.

Such facilities are not yet the norm in the Sauk Valley.

Many assisted living facilities and nursing homes have secure doors and alarm systems to ensure residents with memory problems do not wander off the premises. They might have an enclosed outdoor courtyard or garden, too.

But dedicated memory care units are on the rise in the area.

“The baby boomers are aging,” said Ann Barlow, executive director of Lib-

erty Court. “Until it affected these younger folks, we didn’t see a need for [such care]. We think, ‘Oh, they’re older, they’re just starting to lose their memory.’ But now that it’s hitting people who are younger, we see a need. We think, ‘Wow, they’re young; they’ve got a lot of life left to live.’”

The new 16-unit facility still is awaiting some final touches, including a state inspection, but it already is nearly at capacity.

MEMORY CARE CONTINUED ON 6

Kaleidoscope 2014

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Kaleidoscope 2014

We’ve seen a difference ... it’s inspiring MEMORY CARE CONTINUED FROM 4

Liberty Court employs Montessoribased dementia care to treat its residents with memory ailments. The programming focuses on people’s abilities, rather than their deficits; it enlivens their sense of purpose; and it enhances their selfesteem and fosters their independence, according to the LifeHOUSE website.

Residents participate in meaningful and engaging activities, Barlow said. The activities might seem juvenile, but they really are age- and, more important, memory-appropriate, she said.

“With dementia patients, when they start to lose their memory, first in is last out,” Barlow said. “What they remember, what they have retained is from when they were little. What they go back to is their childhood.

“It’s not a dignity issue. It’s just what they remember.”

The Montessori-based offerings at Liberty Court include a series of stations.

MEMORY CARE CONTINUED ON 8

Philip Marruffo/pmarruffo@saukvalley.com

Lloyd Swan is busy at the Grandpa’s workshop station in the Montessori-based dementia care unit at LifeHOUSE Liberty Court

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Kaleidoscope 2014

Good Neighbor adding memory care wing MEMORY CARE CONTINUED FROM 6

At the caregiver station, residents can take care of baby dolls. They can change them, feed them, and swaddle them in blankets. They can read to them or just rock them.

In the laundry room, residents can fold washcloths and towels. In Grandpa’s workshop, residents can use a tape measure, saw and drill (using Black & Decker children’s power tools) to build something.

The memory care programming – which also includes 10 ready-to-use activity baskets complete with instructions – is helping residents not slip deeper into dementia.

“Many of our residents are at the early stages,” Barlow said. “We don’t have people who wander. We don’t have too many with impulsive behaviors. We’ve seen a difference in our further-progressed clients. It’s quite inspiring.”

Good Neighbor Care of Sterling is adding a memory care wing that will house 30 people. The assisted living facility just

Philip Marruffo/pmarruffo@saukvalley.com

Construction is ongoing of the 16,700-square-foot memory care addition at Good Neighbor Care of Sterling. The addition will include 28 units, have a memory garden, and provide state-of-the-art care. broke ground and expects to open the new unit next spring or summer.

“With the aging of the baby boomers, the diagnosis of Alzheimer’s and dementia-related illnesses is exponentially increasing, and in order to make their golden years as comfortable and safe as possible, we needed to add a community,” said Patricia Cronister, executive

director of Good Neighbor Care.

The new facility will be connected to its main living community by a corridor and will include a memory care garden.

It will offer 24-hour nursing care, as well as activities and therapies that will foster independence in its residents.

MEMORY CARE CONTINUED ON 10

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Kaleidoscope 2014

New facility will have wander guard system MEMORY CARE CONTINUED FROM 8

Resthave Nursing and Retirement Home in Morrison is one of those facilities that does not have a dedicated memory care unit.

The facility has what is called a wander guard system – that is, it has doors with alarms that will sound should a resident try to wander out of the building, said Kristi Christiansen, administrator at Resthave. The facility is in the middle of a three-phase expansion project that will add a 70-bed nursing wing with an enclosed outdoor courtyard that will allow residents to be outside in a secure area, she added.

Resthave still is able to care for many residents with memory ailments. It refers those people it cannot properly care for, however, to facilities with more involved memory care, such as Big Meadows Nursing Home in Savanna or others in Clinton, Iowa.

“We have to determine, is this going to be a safe environment for them?”

Christiansen said.

Philip Marruffo/pmarruffo@saukvalley.com

A drawing is on display of the soon-to-be-constructed Good Neighbor Care of Sterling memory care unit. The addition will include 28 units.

Facilities with memory care units Other assisted living facilities and nursing homes in the Sauk Valley that have memory care units include, but are not limited to: Avonlea Cottage, Sterling Big Meadows Nursing Home, Savanna Dixon Rehabilitation and Health Care Center, Dixon LifeHOUSE Liberty Court, Dixon

The Meadows of Franklin Grove, Franklin Grove Neighbors Rehabilitation Center, Byron Pinecrest Community, Mount Morris Sterling Pavilion, Sterling Windsor Manor, Morrison Source: Alzheimer’s Association

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Kaleidoscope 2014

A life dedicated to service

Alex T. Paschal/apaschal@saukvalley.com

Opal Bowers sets items on a shelf at the Leydig Center in Dixon. The 88-year-old Dixon woman has volunteered at the center – and until last year, with Meals on Wheels – for more than 40 years.

88-year-old a Leydig Center staple more than 40 years

BY CHRISTI WARREN cwarren@saukvalley.com 800-798-4085, ext. 5521

DIXON – Opal Bowers stares into the open oven and lifts the lid off a heavy blue pot.

“What are you doing?”

“Just checking on lunch.”

At the Leydig Center, lunch is provided for workers every day at 11:30 a.m. The meal will feed about 35 people. Today, it’s Opal’s turn to cook.

“What’s for lunch?”

“Beef and noodles.”

When 88-year-old Opal first came to work at the Leydig Center, the charity still was operating out of Eurith Leydig’s basement. Back then, Mrs. Leydig gave away different items for free to those in need.

Opal got involved through her church, the Church of the Brethren in Dixon, and spent her first day sorting boots and shoes.

“I remember thinking it was a really neat thing for somebody to do,” she says.

That was about 50 years ago, give or take a few – Opal can’t quite remember.

In the 44 years since Mrs. Leydig’s death, the Leydig Center has had four locations: a vacant church on Highland Avenue, one spot and then another on Brinton Avenue, and now its enormous, 68,000-square-foot location at 1101 Warp Road, behind BorgWarner Dixon.

Opal first came to Dixon from Moweaqua with the Illinois Central Railroad, working as a telegraph operator.

She met her future husband through mutual friends, and they found a com-

fortable life here, raising their three sons.

She came to spend her days doing volunteer work with her church and at the Leydig Center.

Since her husband’s death 38 years ago, volunteering has taken on an even greater role in her life.

“It’s my recreation or my social life, I guess you could call it,” she says. “We’re all just like a big family here, and we’re all good friends.”

The Leydig Center is unique, Opal says, in that no one on staff receives a penny – any and all money made goes straight to charity. And she’s taken an active role to ensure it stays that way, serving on the board since 1970 in every position available.

OPAL CONTINUED ON 14

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Kaleidoscope 2014

‘I know it’s doing a lot of good’ OPAL

CONTINUED FROM 12

The center gives at least $175,000 a year to local charities, she says, and that makes it all worth it.

“I know it’s doing a lot of good,” she says. “That’s why I’m here. I like helping people. That’s the way I’ve always been. That’s my life.”

In recent years, her involvement has declined, if only minimally. She has problems with her eyesight – macular degeneration – and recently quit driving, which meant she had to give up volunteering with Meals on Wheels, which she also had done for some 40 years.

But she still comes into the Leydig Center as often as she can, getting rides with co-workers and regularly working 6-hour days.

Once she leaves, her day isn’t done.

She frequently brings home “homework,” choosing to spend her afternoons sorting greeting cards and jewelry, which she then prices and places out on the racks.

‘‘ ’’ It’s just a good feeling to walk in here every morning and know you’re going to be helping somebody.

Opal Bowers

She isn’t just a worker, she’s a frequent customer, too.

“I can’t afford to go to the stores and pay the prices,” she says, dressed in an outfit that was bought entirely at the Leydig Center. “And some of the stuff in the stores – the styles are so bad and the material’s not good. What we get in here is.”

Last year, Opal was grand marshal in the Petunia Festival parade, where the Leydig Center float took first place in the business category – an accomplishment to be proud of, to be sure, but for Opal, what it really comes down to is making a difference.

“It’s just a good feeling to walk in here every morning and know you’re going to be helping somebody.”

Rock it like Opal The Leydig Center, 1101 Warp Road in Dixon, is open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday, Thursday and Saturday.

About 82 to 100 volunteers help out, sorting, pricing and stocking shelves and racks, and the profits, 50 cents of every dollar spent there, go to local charities – last year, that amounted to roughly $175,000 to 21 organizations.

It all depends on that volunteer labor, though, and while profits and customers are increasing, the number of volunteers is dropping and their age is rising. More than a dozen are older than 80, including 87-year-old Opal Bowers, a volunteer for about 5 decades now.

Perhaps she is proof that the key to longevity is having a giving heart.

To get in on that volunteer action, contact Joan or Gene Lemme or Mike Napodano at the shop, 815284-7772, or stop by during business hours and ask to speak with a board member.

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Kaleidoscope 2014

â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a wonderful arrangementâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Seniors share homes for cost and companionship NEW YORK (AP) â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s not exactly â&#x20AC;&#x153;The Golden Girls,â&#x20AC;? but for Marcia Rosenfeld, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll do.

Rosenfeld is among thousands of aging Americans taking part in home-sharing programs around the country that allow seniors to stay in their homes and save money while getting some much-needed companionship. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a wonderful arrangement,â&#x20AC;? said the white-haired Rosenfeld, who when asked her age will only say sheâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a senior citizen. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The way the rents are these days, I couldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t stay here without it.â&#x20AC;?

She shares her two-bedroom, $1,000-a-month Brooklyn apartment with Carolyn Allen, a 69-year-old widow who has suffered two strokes and no longer wants to live alone.

Agencies that put such seniors together say the need appears to be growing as baby boomers age and struggle to deal with foreclosures, property taxes and rising rents. The typical situation

AP

Carolyn Allen, a 69-year-old widow who has suffered two strokes, holds a photo of herself with her late husband, Carlton, in Marcia Rosenfeldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Brooklyn apartment in New York. involves an elderly woman, widowed or with the upkeep. divorced, who has a house or an apartment with extra room and needs help HOME-SHARING PROGRAMS CONTINUED ON 17

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Some take household help for payment seniors. In the New York program, only one of the two people has to be 60 or older.

The agenciesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; services mean people who want a roommate donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have to post noticâ&#x20AC;&#x153;Our seniors want to remain part of the es in neighborhood weeklies or online and community they were raised in, where worry about who will respond. they worked and went to church,â&#x20AC;? said â&#x20AC;&#x153;Craigslist can be very scary, especially Jackie Grossman, director of the homefor women,â&#x20AC;? said Connie Skillingstad, sharing program at Open Communities president of Golden Girl Homes Inc. in in the Chicago suburbs. â&#x20AC;&#x153;They donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t want Robbinsdale, Minnesota, which refers to be just with other seniors. Maybe they women to housing resources including love their garden, their tool shed, and they home-sharing. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d rather go through a would have to give that up if they move respectable organization.â&#x20AC;? into senior housing.â&#x20AC;?

In the past, program directors say, many At the New York Foundation for Senior of the people offering space were willing to Citizens, where applicants have tripled take household help â&#x20AC;&#x201C; grocery shopping, since 2008, the average boarder pays about housecleaning, repair work â&#x20AC;&#x201C; in lieu or $700 a month. The same average holds at some or all of the rent. the HIP Housing program in San Mateo, Recently, though, more people have California, but it is about $500 at the St. insisted on dollars rather than services.

Ambrose Housing Aid Center in Baltimore. â&#x20AC;&#x153;In the last 5 years, weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve really seen Agencies handle the background checks more people looking for financial aid rathand other screening and consider various er than barter,â&#x20AC;? said Kirby Dunn, executive lifestyle criteria â&#x20AC;&#x201C; smoking, pets, disposdirector of Homeshare Vermont in Burlable income â&#x20AC;&#x201C; in making matches. When ington. a match is made, the new roommates sign Companionship is an important side an agreement covering chores, overnight benefit. visitors, telephone use, etc. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Independence is great but isolation as Not all agencies limit applicants to we age is a growing concern, so compan-

HOME-SHARING PROGRAMS CONTINUED FROM 16

ionship can be almost life-altering,â&#x20AC;? Dunn said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;People are telling us theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re happier, sleeping better, eating better. ... If I could sell you a drug that did that, youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d pay a lot of money.â&#x20AC;?

Grossman said many long-lasting friendships develop, â&#x20AC;&#x153;and for others thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s just mutual respect and thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s fine, too.â&#x20AC;?

Rosenfeld and Allen, who have been roommates for 3 years, both said they feel more like business associates than longtime friends like TVâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s â&#x20AC;&#x153;Golden Girls,â&#x20AC;? but they gabbed like sisters and giggled about the apparent highlight of their time together: â&#x20AC;&#x153;the bathtub incident.â&#x20AC;?

Allen, who gets around with the help of a walker, had slipped in the bathtub and gotten stuck, with one leg wedged awkwardly behind her. She tried and tried but couldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t get up. â&#x20AC;&#x153;If I was living alone I might have been there for days,â&#x20AC;? she said. But Rosenfeld was home, and although sheâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s too petite to extract Allen from the tub, she was able to call 911 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; and provide a towel for Allen to cover herself when rescuers arrived. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Thank God Marcia was there,â&#x20AC;? Allen said.

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Kaleidoscope 2014

Sense of smell fades with age

BY STACEY BURLING MCT News Service

PHILADELPHIA – Food can be one of those unexpected flash points of late life.

Grandma may say she’s never hungry or that the only things that taste good are salty foods such as French fries. Grandpa may lose control over his sweet tooth, living on Tastykakes and ice cream.

The rest of the family worries that poor nutrition will make their elders’ already tenuous health even worse and hasten death. So, in frustration and fear, they chide or tempt loved ones to change their habits. Often, they learn what stubborn means.

“It is extremely distressing,” said Louisa Miceli, a nurse with the Visiting Nurse Association of Greater Philadelphia who has heard about eating problems in many a home. “Eating is such an emotional thing.”

Because metabolism slows and activity declines, it’s normal for elderly people to want less food. What families may not know is that, as people get older, the way food tastes changes – and not in a good way. While our taste buds are one of the

‘‘ ’’ People don’t appreciate how important these senses are until it happens to them or one of their loved ones.

Richard Doty, director of the University of Pennsylvania’s Smell and Taste Center

few things that hold up fairly well as we age, our sense of smell is what contributes most of what we think of as flavor – herbs and spices, chocolate, vanilla, strawberry, coffee, wine. And that sense falls apart.

According to research by Richard Doty, director of the University of Pennsylvania’s Smell and Taste Center, ability to smell peaks by age 40. It’s all downhill from there, with the slope growing sharply steeper after 60. Sixty percent of people between 65 and 80 have major olfactory impairment. More than 80 percent do after 80.

Men are more impaired than women, and smokers fare worse than nonsmokers.

Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases are also associated with problems with sense

of smell. Some medications cause trouble, too.

Older people can also have distortions of taste that make everything – even water – taste salty or give foods a sour or bitter taste, Doty said. In cacosmia, one of the more alarming problems, foods take on a fecal flavor.

In younger people, the sense of smell can be impaired by viruses, head injury, or chemotherapy.

“People don’t appreciate how important these senses are until it happens to them or one of their loved ones,” Doty said.

Not being able to smell well can be a serious problem, said Ronald DeVere, a neurologist who directs the Smell and Taste Center in Austin, Texas. People may not smell smoke, leaking gas, or spoiled food.

If they lose interest in food, they may lose weight, a risk factor for other health problems in the elderly. Smell loss may also contribute to depression if older people curtail social activities that involve food.

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Kaleidoscope 2014

19

True Blue Elwood Koch

Philip Marruffo/pmarruffo@saukvalley.com

Elwood Koch puts away pans while working Friday afternoon at Culver’s in Dixon. Elwood works Mondays and Fridays from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m., sanitizing the cooking area, the table tops, and the bathrooms. When it gets busy at the restaurant, he helps wait on customers.

Beloved nonagenarian a fixture at Dixon Culver’s chain’s 500 or so sites, turned 90 on March 29. Friday, his colleagues and customers in Dixon celebrated the milestone with balloons and streamDIXON – His hands are the strong, ers, and a red-and-white banner wishsure hands of a working man, smooth ing him a happy birthday. and cool from so much time in water, As his nametag proclaims, Elwood with long, thin fingers knob-knuckled has been “True blue since 2010.” with age. His grip, though, like the He calls this his third career. His first man himself, is gentle. was raising dairy cattle and four chilBut his hands aren’t the first thing dren – two boys, two girls – on a farm you notice when you meet Elwood Koch. First, there’s the sweet, friendly south of Polo. He and his wife, Eleanor, did that for 30 years, then Elwood smile, and those blue, blue, Culver’s was a janitor at Flex-O-Glass for 28 blue eyes that he fixes on you from years. behind his gold-rimmed glasses, all Eighty-five was in his rearview mirror his attention focused on you.

Koch, who may be the oldest employ- when the Flex-O-Glass folks suggested it might be time to retire. “They didn’t ee working at any of the restaurant

BY KATHLEEN A. SCHULTZ kschultz@saukvalley.com 800-798-4085, ext. 5535

want me to die with my boots on,” he said. He loved that job, “made a lot of great friends there,” but agreed to hang up his broom.

That retirement lasted about a month. Then Elwood, a regular diner at Culver’s (chopped steak with mushrooms and chocolate custard with cashews is his favorite), asked owner Jason Rowe, “Can you use an 86-yearold that’s a little bit deaf?”

“I didn’t want to sit around anymore.”

Rowe, who became Elwood’s friend because of the Kochs’ frequent visits, hired him on the spot.

ELWOOD CONTINUED ON 20

20

Kaleidoscope 2014

‘Having Elwood ... makes us better’

‘‘

Technically, this may be Elwood’s fourth career. His first was serving as an Army Signal Corps cryptographer in World War II, with Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower’s It was a no-brainer, Rowe said. Elwood Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionwent from being a loyal and faithful ary Force, first at the Palace of Versailles in guest to a loyal, faithful and dedicated France, then in Frankfurt, Germany. employee, who sets a great example for his All information about what was hapyounger co-workers. pening in the war came through the Jason Rowe, owner of Culver’s “Elwood is fantastic at what he does. headquarters, all the death and destrucHe takes his job so seriously, he’s so contion and misery funneled through the cerned about doing a good job ... and he’s corps, but thankfully, “I didn’t have to got a work ethic you just can’t believe.” shoot at anybody.”

Aside from that, he’s just good people, days. Often, he’s the first person there, said On Veterans and Memorial days, he Rowe said.

Kayla Halfacre, Culver’s general manager. wears his brown ETO jacket, like the one “Having Elwood employed at Culver’s “This is just a great place to work,” he Eisenhower made famous; it still fits his not only makes our business a better busi- said. “I’ve enjoyed every bit of it. Everythin frame, although it is a little harder to ness, but it makes us better people,” he body treats me with dignity.” zip up, he said, patting his tummy. said. “If, IF, Elwood ever retires, he would Dignity, yes, and true affection, even There’s another milestone ahead. Elwood be very much missed.” love. No one says Elwood’s name without and Eleanor will be married 64 years in Elwood works Mondays and Fridays from breaking into a smile; eyes soften and May. “She’s been a wonderful person,” he 7 a.m. to 1 p.m., sanitizing the cooking everyone, no matter their age, turns into a said, gushing just a bit. “I owe my longevity area, the table tops, and the bathrooms. doting grandchild in his presence. to her. She’s a great cook.”

He takes the booths apart – yes, takes them “He’s just the sweetest guy,” Halfacre In typical humble Elwood Koch fashapart – and vacuums inside and all around. said, adding that he knows all the employ- ion, he also takes no credit for the hard He scrapes the gum off the undersides of ees’ names, and gets to know them all work and sweet disposition that has the tables. When it gets busy, he helps wait individually. taken him so far in life, and brought him on customers.

“He has all our hearts,” team member so many friends.

In the summer, he also works WednesDiane Novak said.

“I’m here merely by the grace of God.”

ELWOOD

CONTINUED FROM 19

Elwood is fantastic at what he does. He takes his job so seriously, he’s so concerned about doing a good job ... and he’s got work ethic you just can’t believe.

’’

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Kaleidoscope 2014

21

Advice for a happy retirement Start by identifying your vision of a life without work

The top 5 Wes Mossâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; five best practices for a safe, solid and happy retirement: Determine what you want and need your retirement money for.

Figure out how much you need to save.

Create a plan to pay off your mortgage in as little as 5 years.

Develop an income stream from multiple sources.

Become an income investor.

BY NEDRA RHONE MCT News Service

ATLANTA â&#x20AC;&#x201C; In 2012, there were 43.1 million Americans age 65 and older.

By 2050, that number is expected to reach 83.7 million, according to two recent reports from the U.S. Census Bureau. As you probably know, most of those people will be baby boomers â&#x20AC;&#x201C; born between 1946 and 1964 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; whose youngest members are now turning 50.

You canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t talk about turning 65 without talking about retirement, but most of the talk hasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t been good. Reports about shrinking Social Security benefits and underfunded or nonexistent pensions have left many Americans believing retirement is a dream they may never realize.

With the release of his book, â&#x20AC;&#x153;You Can Retire Sooner Than You Think: The 5 Money Secrets of the Happiest Retireesâ&#x20AC;?

(McGraw Hill Education, $18), Atlantabased financial planner Wes Moss offers something different â&#x20AC;&#x201C; not just a plan to retire, but a way to do it sooner and to be happy when you do. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve been reading about how horrible retirement is in America,â&#x20AC;? Moss says. â&#x20AC;&#x153;There are all these scary statistics

â&#x20AC;Ś if you hit a couple of bare minimum benchmarks, then retirement starts to take on a new road.â&#x20AC;?

From the first chapter, Moss makes it clear that retirement isnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t all about the money. A survey of 1,350 current retirees from across the country helped him identify a few traits that can make you happy, or unhappy, during your retirement years.

For example, according to Mossâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; survey, happy retirees have a liquid net worth of at least $500,000; they have about three activities, hobbies or interests they love to pursue and they have a home value of at least $300,000. They also have an annual retirement income at or near $82,770. Unhappy retirees average about $53,370.

Those could be really terrifying numbers for the 75 percent of Americans who are nearing retirement and have less than $30,000 in their retirement accounts, but Moss also gives you five money secrets to help you get where you need to go.

HAPPY RETIREMENT CONTINUED ON 22

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Kaleidoscope 2014

Being able to fund your retirement gives you more freeedom HAPPY RETIREMENT CONTINUED FROM 21

The process starts with asking yourself some hard questions about your vision of a life without work. Will you travel?

Stay at home? Volunteer? Keep working? How much will that life cost you?

If the statistics are correct, there is probably a gap between how much money you think you need before you retire and how much money you have saved. So Moss helps you figure out how to close the gap and generate more income.

“You can make 100 excuses for not being in a position of financial comfort or freedom. The problem I see, as an

adviser, is that it gets pretty sad when you are in your 60s and 70s and have limited financial resources,” Moss says.

People in their 30s and 40s reading the book can use Moss’ plan as a guideline for getting on track. Older readers, age 55 and up, should focus on Part Three, which is devoted to Moss’ rules for income investing.

Four of the five secrets to a happy retirement have to do with money, but the other one, the one about being happy, is what Moss always comes back to. Retirement gives you freedom, he says. Being able to fund the kind of retirement you desire gives you even more freedom. And freedom is what we all want.

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Kaleidoscope 2014

23

Merrill’s ‘unsung hero’

Alex T. Paschal/apaschal@saukvalley.com

William Ludwig, a volunteer at Merrill Elementary School in Rock Falls, helps a third-grader in Jan Whitlock’s special education class with his reading assignment. Ludwig, who has been volunteering at the school for 4 years, was honored for his efforts in April with a Bi-County Cooperative Foundation Unsung Hero award.

Mr. Ludwig: a special man with a special mission

BY KATHLEEN A. SCHULTZ kschultz@saukvalley.com 800-798-4085, ext. 5535

Note to readers: To protect the privacy of Merrill School’s special ed students, we agreed not to use their names. Their quotes, taken from the poster they made, speak for themselves.

ROCK FALLS – He’s not a big guy, but still, those tiny plastic chairs can’t be comfortable.

But that didn’t stop 80-year-old retired teacher Bill Ludwig from plunking down in one at least three mornings a week as a volunteer in Jan Whitlock’s third-grade special ed class at Merrill School.

On a Friday near the end of April, dressed in sneakers, jeans and a soft gray sweatshirt that complemented the silver of his beard,

‘‘ ’’ The kids love him, especially the boys. They can’t wait for him to come. He’s very kind and gentle with them. He never has a cross word to say.

Jan Whitlock, third-grade teacher

the softness of his voice, Mr. Ludwig sat in one of those small chairs, at a low-to-theground table, working with a honey of a boy, whose black-brown eyes were intense as he and Mr. Ludwig talked about Max’s pony, who had run away in the earthquake.

“If his pony runs away, what’s going to

happen to Max? How is he going to get home?” he asked the boy, gently coaxing a conversation about the story his young charge had read. You’d never know it was a lesson in reading comprehension.

“The kids love him, especially the boys,” Whitlock said. “They can’t wait for him to come. He’s very kind and gentle with them.

He never has a cross word to say.”

He’s modest, she added. He treats the kids with respect. But his greatest talent? “He’s really awesome with making the kids feel good about themselves.”

Mr. Ludwig’s devotion to these kids – devotion, truly; he can’t hide it – earned him one of this year’s Bi-County Cooperative Foundation Unsung Hero awards.

LUDWIG CONTINUED ON 25

24

Kaleidoscope 2014

Alex T. Paschal/apaschal@saukvalley.com

Mr. Ludwig looks over the poster his students surprised him with. “Oh, bless their souls. Isn’t that priceless?” he said as he read their tributes.

‘‘

This is my family. The only tragedy is they leave you, and you don’t know where they go or what they become.

Bill Ludwig

About the foundation

’’

The Bi-County Cooperative Foundation is a nonprofit charitable organization that works closely with the Bi-County Special Education Cooperative to enrich the lives of children with disabilities in Whiteside and Carroll counties. Since its launch in 1996, it has given more than $500,000 to such children.

Go to www.bicountyfoundation.org to donate, to volunteer or learn more about its work.

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Kaleidoscope 2014

25

‘This is my family’ But his most important job, he says, “is just talking to them and getting to know them.”

CONTINUED FROM 23 They “are desperately in need of love and attention,” he said.

And that’s something that Mr. Ludwig, as He was surprised, he said, and very gratethe kids are required to call him (although ful. sometimes they slip and call him dude, as But you couldn’t help but think that the greater gift came that Friday, when his kids he does them), gives them in spades.

“Dear Mr. Ludwg thank you for what you presented him with a poster full of cards did for us you are the best helper in the and pictures they had created, thanking wold I love you for everything you did.” him for ... well, being him.

It’s not just his time.

“Mr. Ludwig Thank you for taking care Mr. Ludwig, who taught in the Erie school of us. You are the best the hole class loves system for 38 years before he retired, also you.” brings Fruit Loops – for kids who didn’t “Oh, bless their souls. Isn’t that pricemake it in time for the free breakfast. And less?” he said, a smile of sheer joy spreadsnacks. He brought socks at Christmas. So ing across his face. “That’s the frosting on they wouldn’t be left out, he paid for his the cake.” kids to participate in the school’s Jump That love, it runs both ways.

Rope for Heart fundraiser.

“You mean so much to me. Thank you “Thank you for every thing you did I flee for spending all your time with us. It makes happ. You get me stuff I need you are a me feel happy.” hero.”

Merrill is not a rich school, and the speBill Ludwig lives in Sterling, where he cial ed kids really have special needs. Many graduated from high school in 1952. He come from broken homes, have parents loves to garden, and he’s an avid reader. struggling just to keep their heads above He also volunteers at the Caring Place in water, sometimes don’t get enough to eat.

Sterling a couple of days a week. He likes to He helps these struggling students with keep busy. their reading, their writing, their spelling.

LUDWIG

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Early in his career, he was a teacher at a boarding school for boys in Turkey. His mom was a foster grandparent; that’s how he got interested in working with young children in area schools. He volunteered at Dillon School before Merrill.

He’s been at Merrill for 4 years. He also works with its special ed fourth-graders.

He’s grandfatherly in every sense of the word, although he never married, never had kids of his own.

“This is my family,” he said.

He encourages anyone and everyone to volunteer at a school. Helping these students has been one of the best things he’s ever done.

“The only tragedy is they leave you,” he said. “and you don’t know where they go or what they become.”

“Your the best teacher ever and every day you help me with my morning work. So i mad you dis card. I love you.”

So do we.

“I think you are sweet Mr. Ludwig. You rock the hole wide world.”

You are. You do.

“Let your greatness fly, Mr. Ludwg.”

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Kaleidoscope 2014

Her dream â&#x20AC;&#x201C; to be a famous artist Painter exhibits artwork in first show at age 82

BY KRISTIN E. HOLMES MCT News Service

PHILADELPHIA â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Patricia Ray Guckesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; husband never wanted her to work. So she painted.

Up at 5 every morning, before her husband and two daughters, Guckes sat on a stool facing her easel in the kitchen of her Lower Moreland, Pennsylvania, home.

She imagined pretty pictures and painted them, many smaller than a playing card. Then the chaos of the morning took over.

For decades, Patty Ray Guckesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; routine yielded portraits, ocean scenes, and paintings of delicately rendered birds, but only recently did she exhibit in her first show â&#x20AC;&#x201C; at age 82.

This month, Guckes was one of several artists featured in a small show at Abington Memorial Hospital. She has booked another for the fall, and a gallery owner in Lambertville, New Jersey, wants to see more of her work.

Family had taken precedence over her hobby, but one of her daughters died in 2010 and her husband died in December while she was with him on a cruise. â&#x20AC;&#x153;My neighbor said, â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;What are you going to do with your life?â&#x20AC;&#x2122;â&#x20AC;? Guckes said. She said she responded, â&#x20AC;&#x153;I always wanted to be a famous artist.â&#x20AC;?

In the ninth decade of her life, that is what Guckes is setting out to do. She has enough product. The paintings fill her home â&#x20AC;&#x201C; against walls, under beds, and even in the shower stalls of a house outfitted with furnishings that look as if they

MCT News Service

Patty Guckes, an 82-year-old artist who specializes in the tiny paintings that hang inside dollhouses, poses for a portrait with some of her work in her Huntington Valley, Pennsylvania, home. came from the set of â&#x20AC;&#x153;Mad Men.â&#x20AC;?

That is just one of the ways that Guckes seems a woman from another time. She says her husband, James, did everything.

He made the money, paid the bills, and drove the car. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I never even had an allowance,â&#x20AC;? Guckes said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;He said, you donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t need it. Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll buy you anything you want.â&#x20AC;?

James Guckes, a mechanical engineer and businessman, kept his wife sheltered from the â&#x20AC;&#x153;stress and problemsâ&#x20AC;? of everyday life, said the coupleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s daughter, Patricia Lee Wilson of Doylestown, Pennsylvania. But now, there is no longer a shelter. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I showed her how to pay a bill, and sheâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s been paying them ever since,â&#x20AC;? Wilson said

of the time since her father died. â&#x20AC;&#x153;She even called a plumber over to fix the sink.â&#x20AC;?

Guckes plans to buy a car and start driving again, after years of relying on her husband or her own feet. When he didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t drive her, Guckes walked the 3.5 miles to Willow Grove Park or the grocery.

Now that she has art to sell, Guckes plans on buying a hatchback, stocking it full of her art, and driving it around to shop her work. Sheâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s worried about making ends meet.

Guckes began sketching as a youngster.

She took one art course while earning her bachelorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s degree in home economics at what is now McDaniel College in Westminster, Maryland.

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Kaleidoscope 2014

27

Guckes met her husband at the Shore while she worked as a waitress at the Chatterbox, an Ocean City mainstay.

They married a year later, and Guckes began life as a homemaker. Her husband bought her a paint set to keep her from being bored. She often painted with her daughters. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I would draw her, and she would draw me,â&#x20AC;? said Wilson, a former art teacher.

Wilsonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s younger sister, Stephanie Gehlert, is deceased.

During 14 of the familyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s summers in Ocean City, Guckes taught at the Ocean City Arts Center. She began specializing in miniatures, painting replicas of masterworks that adorn dollhouses, including works by Mary Cassatt and Johannes Vermeer.

In the 1980s, several of her pieces were part of a dollhouse exhibited at the White House during the Christmas season, Guckes said.

Guckes also painted some of her work on commission.

But family took precedence. When her husband became ill with a serious heart condition, she tended to him. â&#x20AC;&#x153;She had to be with my dad,â&#x20AC;? Wilson said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I think, now she is free to pursue her art.â&#x20AC;?

Neighbor Katie Sullivan is helping her.

She often sees Guckes in the midst of the

MCT News Service

A miniature reproduction of Vermeerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s â&#x20AC;&#x153;Girl with a Pearl Earringâ&#x20AC;? painted by Patty Guckes is next to a copy of the painting that she worked from at her home. three-mile walk to the store and offers her a ride. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Sheâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s an emotional wreck,â&#x20AC;? Sullivan said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;But her eyes need to be open. Her husband is not here.â&#x20AC;?

Sullivan helped facilitate Guckesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; par-

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ticipation in the Abington show. Guckes sold two paintings, one for $500. â&#x20AC;&#x153;She has thousands of pieces of art that she never sold,â&#x20AC;? Sullivan said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I encouraged her to use her art as a way of gaining financial independence.â&#x20AC;?

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