Transition Network Supports Women Facing Midlife Challenges

Like many women, Marilyn Abedin has faced a series of life-stage transitions as she entered midlife. Over the past decade, the Saratoga resident has divorced her first husband and married another man, watched her youngest child leave home for college and launched a new career as a mortgage broker, after 35 years of hospital-related work.

Abedin, now 62, has embraced these changes, which she describes as "mostly exciting and liberating." But, for many people, the transitions that often occur in their 50s and 60s - in areas such as work, family, romance, housing, health and finance - can prove daunting and stressful. Click here to read full article

Free Clinic Taps Retired Doctors

When Dr. Jerrold Kaplan retired from his full-time cardiology practice in 2000, he quickly discovered that a life focused on leisure wasn’t his cup of tea. So after a few months of golfing and traveling, Kaplan signed up with the Samaritan House Free Clinic of San Mateo, where he now spends half a day each week treating patients.

Kaplan, 66, is one of about 35 physicians who donate their time and services to the Samaritan House Free Clinic of San Mateo, which provides primary and specialty medical care to low-income San Mateo County residents. Nearly all of the clinic’s volunteers – the nurses, translators and office staff, as well as the doctors – are over 60, and most are retired or semi-retired from full-time careers. Click here to read full article

Exercise Puts the Strut Back in Aging Bodies
When Neva Holland of San Francisco recently ran into an old friend she hadn't seen for a few years, her friend was surprised at how much healthier Holland looked.

"I can't even believe it's you," the friend told Holland, who has lost about 15 pounds and dramatically improved her strength and stamina since she began dancing and working out regularly about three years ago. "My friends and my daughter are amazed at what this [exercise] has done for me. I've had numerous people come up to me and ask how they can" achieve similar results. Click here to read full article

On Top of His Game at 93
After 93 years in the fast lane, Robert Cameron has no time for retirement. Not now, not ever.

"Working is what keeps me alive," says Cameron, an aerial photographer best known for the "Above" series of books, which capture many of the world's great cities and landscapes from a helicopter's perspective. "I’ve seen what retirement has done to many of my peers. They get fat and lazy and before long they’re dead. Who needs that action?" Click here to read full article

Preserving History with Storyzon
When Jürgen Möllers told his parents he wanted to record their life stories, his father was resistant. "He thought it was a stupid idea," laughs Möllers. "But once we got started, he really got into it. After awhile he was following me around the house telling me stories. He couldn't turn it off."

That's par for the course. "Many people think their lives are not special and not worth talking about,"” says Möllers, the founder and president of Storyzon, a San Francisco-based company that specializes in recording personal histories. "But once they get over their initial shyness, they get excited. It's a great joy for most people to talk about their lives. People are often surprised by what they remember." Click here to read full article

Keeping Personal History Alive
Capturing family histories before they are lost and forgotten is Elizabeth Wright's business.

"I help people put together their life stories so they can be passed along to future generations," says Wright, who has operated an oral history business called History in Progress for the past 20 years. Click here to read full article