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From culture to couture
Hazel Stabler prepares for Paris Fashion Week
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The Active Age To say that Wichitan Hazel Stabler, perhaps best known as a member of the Wichita school board, is currently experiencing some of the highest and lowest moments of her life is an understatement. First, a pinnacle of achievement for the fashion designer: She’s been invited to present a show at Paris Fashion Week. The Milan Fashion Week invited her, too, but she can afford only one trip. Naturally, the Paris show — a crowning achievement for any designer — has to be it. Stabler also received wonderful local recognition at a Wichita Art Museum event earlier this year. A particularly posh crowd marveled at the stunning outfit she wore, a creation that emcee Bonnie Bing explained that Stabler had whipped together in a mere hour the night before. Then there are the lows.
Stabler’s 46-year-old son, Derek Edmonds, was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer last year. Then Stabler was diagnosed with lung and kidney cancer in May. As she was recovering from having half her lung removed in September, her husband, Hollis Stabler, was diagnosed with glioblastoma. Hazel Stabler cared for her husband in the midst of her own recovery, but three weeks later, he died. “I’m still in shock,” said Stabler, who also is having a kidney removed in January. “It’s overwhelming . . . My doctor recommended I go to a counselor because I’m really having a hard time.” She’s got to start preparing for Paris, though, which is coming up next fall. If the show Stabler presented at New York Fashion Week in 2019 is See Couture, page 10
January 2024
Is Amtrak stop back on track for Wichita?
By Joe Stumpe Don’t schedule your trip just yet, but Amtrak passenger service appears closer to returning to Wichita for the first time since 1979. The Federal Railroad Administration announced last month that an Oklahoma City-to-Newton route has been included in its corridor development program, which is guiding expansion of passenger train service. The agency allocated $500,00 to be used studying the extension of the Amtrak Heartland Flyer passenger route north from Oklahoma City. Wichita, Newton and Arkansas City would have stops, along with several cities in northern Oklahoma. From Oklahoma City, the Heartland Flyer extends south to Fort Hazel Stabler
See Amtrak, page 7
Finding affordable senior housing no easy feat By Joe Stumpe After getting divorced in her mid 60s, Darlene Palsmeier was forced to look for a new home. She didn't like what she found, a least in terms of cost. With an annual income of $38,640, Palsmeier doesn’t consider herself well off. But when she began applying for apartments in government-subsidized senior living communities around the area, she discovered she was above the income limit for residents by almost $3,000. Needing a place “pretty quick,” she rented an apartment on Rock Road in east Wichita for $1,400 a month. That equals 43 percent of her monthly income, well above the 30 percent recommended by the government and most experts. “I didn’t have any idea this was going to happen at 66,” Palsmeier said.
“Now I’m going to be 68 in a couple of weeks.” Palsmeier’s income comes from Social Security and a pension from her former job at Cessna Aircraft. She said she knows “there are a lot of people who make a lot less than I make” but feels like there’s “nothing in the middle” range for people like herself. Her experience is not unusual for older residents seeking a new home, the large majority of whom are women. “We do get calls like that,” said Melissa Espinoza, resource center supervisor with Central Plains Area Agency on Aging. “We also get calls that they can’t afford any rents in the area any longer, or that the rent has Darlene Palsmeier struggled to increased from the previous year.” find affordable housing for herCPAAA lists about 125 self and Boomer, who's 16. developments in Sedgwick, Butler and Harvey County in its independent See Housing, page 6
Questions about services?
Central Plains Area Agency on Aging/Sedgwick County Department on Aging: 1-855-200-2372
Butler County: (316) 775-0500 or 1-800-279-3655 Harvey County: (316) 284-6880 or 1-800-279-3655