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Vol 41 • No. 10
www.theactiveage.com September 2020 Kansas’ Award-winning Top 55+ News Source
'Assignment in life' Faith, teaching and cool wheels keep Teresa Molina on the move
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By Amy Geiszler-Jones A profound sense of faith and seemingly boundless energy propel Teresa Molina through life. The daughter of a grocery store owner whose shelves were stocked with Mexican food and folk art, Molina moved to Wichita as a single mom of two. She earned a bachelor’s degree in Spanish and education in 1989, then spent 25 years as a foreign language teacher with Wichita Public Schools. Shortly before retiring from USD 259 in 2014, she earned a master’s degree in education from Friends University. Today, she’s a full-time Spanish professor at the school, where she’s helped create a service-oriented focus for the Spanish degree program and is involved in the school’s efforts to produce servant leaders. In 2016, she founded Friends’ student Hispanic
Teresa Molina American Leadership Organization. All of that was fueled by stories of Jesus urging his followers to serve See Molina, page 9
COVID regs stress nursing home residents, families By Mary Clarkin When Mary Malone turned 61 in March, family members couldn’t come closer than the other side of a nursing home window. Malone, a nanny and housekeeper described as the “glue” of her family, lay in a bed at Watercrest at Victoria Falls in Andover, a skilled nursing home and rehabilitation center that had been locked down because of the coronavirus pandemic. Her family erected a yard art scene outside her window. “So this is what we have come to,” Malone’s niece, Jannette Malone Page, wrote about the experience at the time. In fact, the worst was yet to come. Malone had gone into the home in July 2019 to recover from the amputation of her leg due to cancer. She died on April 25 after a cancerous tumor was found on her arm, in circumstances made more painful by coronavirus pandemic-related
restrictions. Page said her aunt suffered panic attacks before her family was finally allowed to visit her in her final days. Hospice care had been permitted, but Malone “had to be like literally declining” before family members were allowed in. Page, a certified medical assistant, said she understands the importance of COVID-19 restrictions, but believes long-term care facilities must consider each situation individually. Nobody should have to be alone during their last days, she said, even if her aunt’s devout Catholic faith comforted her. “She was scared, but she wasn’t.” The case illustrates the challenges that long-term care facilities, residents and their family members face during the pandemic, which reached Kansas six months ago. In Sedgwick County See Covid, page 6
Alzheimer’s breakthrough? Wichitan thinks so By Joe Stumpe David Welch watched as his father, sister and cousins suffered from Alzheimer’s. So when the Wichita businessman started having memory problems at age 60, he had a pretty good idea of the source. He also knew the problem was bigger than himself — as big, in fact, as the 5.4 million Americans currently estimated to have the devastating degenerative neural disease. Welch, longtime owner of Welch’s Heating & Air, learned from his physician about drug research studies designed to find a treatment. He quickly concluded that getting stuck with a needle for two hours every month is a small price to pay for potentially finding that treatment. See Breakthrough, page 8
Questions about services?
David and Penne Welch hope an experimental drug that David is taking for Alzheimer's will be approved for wider use by the FDA.
Central Plains Area Agency on Aging or call your 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