MPR: Aging Gracefully - An Individual Perspective

June 6: A Look Back On Taking Risks
Had a busy and interesting day today. First, I worked with three college students from Russia at a local gift shop. (Cook County is not able to fill all the tourist industry jobs without the help of MANY foreign students.) These three didn't speak English very well and must have been overwhelmed with the thousands of items the store has. Leaving their country, coming to a small town like Grand Marais, and going to work right away pricing hundreds of items . . . I don't know if I would have had the courage to do that in my mid-twenties. It will be fun to get to know them better when their English skills increase. I doubt that I will learn Russian—short-term memory is the first to go!

I don't know if I have taken a lot of risks in my life, but adopting nine children, some of other races, was certainly an interesting journey. Now that they are all in their thirties I can look back and see that it was well worth all the work, frustrations—and now the joys.

Probably the biggest risk I took was after my divorce, when I made a decision to move to Grand Marais with six of my children without a job. (This area was a place my family of origin always came to every summer so my dad, who immigrated from Sweden at 17, could eat fresh herring and talk Swedish with others.) Grand Marais was a place I always associated with good times. It was a good move for me and I believe also for my children. I now consider this my home (except in the winter) and when the time comes that I need services—a place to spend my later years—this is it! The divorce was certainly very traumatic for me and I believe also for my children, but as I look back, I would never have had the wonderful opportunity of living and working in this community.

June 7: A Need For Assisted Living
I am sitting here this evening in front of this computer, realizing that about four years ago I made such a big issue about computers, not being able to learn etc., and now I can not live without one. The secret for me was finally finding a teacher that could teach an old dog new tricks. Thanks, Mike!

I might add as I sit here tonight, the mosquitoes are driving me insane—wonder how those little buggers get in?

Today I met with several people from different area agencies about assisted-living services. This service is nonexistent in all of Cook County and the need keeps coming up. How do we get agencies to take a risk when we have such small numbers? Will there ever come a time when the state or federal government will say here is X number of dollars to get this going?

This has frustrated me for years—meetings, meetings, and nothing happens.

The day was sunny and warm for a change and that brightened the attitude. In three weeks, we will have another meeting and have more figures of potential clients—maybe this year we will make progress! My hope is some of the community members will come again. We need their input.

Where are all these mosquitoes coming from? Can one sleep with a head net on?

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