Wendy Alexander grew up under apartheid in South Africa. Until she was seven, she felt like most other kids. That changed the day the police insisted that she and her family get off a whites-only beach. "I was no longer a child," Wendy said. "Once you know racism and segregation, you know it."

Wendy's dream was to leave South Africa; while the dream was deferred, she and her family immigrated to Australia when Wendy was twenty. But it wasn't easy to acclimate to the newfound freedoms. It took over two years before Wendy felt relaxed, safe.

This should have had a happy ending. Sadly, it did not. A relationship with an Australian went bad, very bad. The man walked away, leaving Wendy with a mortgage and bills she couldn't afford, a baby soon to be born, and the scars of domestic violence. Wendy was devastated.

This episode traces Wendy's journey from deep emotional and financial depression to a successful succession of high-paying, high-pressure jobs that kept her financially secure until she left it all behind to expand her own business, the Happy Career Club.

What Wendy learned from her own experiences with corporations is shared with her clients, the vast majority of whom have gone on to professional and personal success. She has great advice for planning to "move on," getting to know prospective employers, writing a good resume, and all kinds of other dos and don'ts.

Her winning strategies complement the happiness that she values and the lessons learned.

https://happycareerhub.com/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/wendyaalexander/?originalSubdomain=au

facebook.com/happycareerhubcoaching

https://www.amazon.com/Internal-Uprising-Reclaiming-Through-Menopause/dp/B0BSD3LRJX

"So the light went off in my five-year-old head, and I said there must be something in stories that we need. Stories are like air or water. So, I decided right then and there that I wanted to be a storyteller, a writer." _______ Shelley Fraser Mickle

While her route was circuitous, as most journeys are, Shelley became an award-winning author and the storyteller incarnate for six years on NPR's "Morning Edition." The story she didn't tell often, though, was how, at age six, she was diagnosed with polio and taken to a hospital for infectious children, where she spent three months in isolation. Even more horrifying was that two of the children in her ward died right alongside her. There was an iron lung next to Shelley, poised to make her even more of a prisoner, but she bravely survived and rendered the iron lung unnecessary.

After such a horrifying trauma, how do you come around to humor? Well, Shelley explained, her mother was straight out of "I Love Lucy," a real hoot. She suffered from depression, and laughter was an elixir. Shelley came home with at least one funny story daily to entertain her mother.

Shelley had dreamed of becoming a cowgirl just like Dale Evans. (I hope that reference rings a bell.) She loved animals and, with her husband, bought a farm stocked full of all kinds of beloved creatures. And then along came Buddy, a neighbor's dog much more interested in spending time with Shelley than her owner.

Buddy became Shelley's beloved companion for ten years and saw so many things about her that she didn't see in herself. Theirs was a love affair.

"I'm 81 years old in this long life. I've had a lot of weird boyfriends, but I've never had the obsessive adoration that Buddy was offering me."

That special connection between a human and a dog is the overarching theme of Shelley's latest book, Itching To Love: The Story of a Dog.

Listen to NPR's "Morning Edition" emeritus and award-winning author as she tells her story of physical challenge, a career as a humorist, a dream realized to be a cowgirl, and the touching relationship with her dog, Buddy.

https://www.shelleymickle.com/

https://www.amazon.com/Itching-Love-Story-Shelley-Mickle/dp/1637633394 or wherever books are sold

https://www.shelleymickle.com/books

https://www.shelleymickle.com/book-clubs

“No Way Out of This: Living with a Partner with Alzheimer’s.”

Sue Lick’s husband was fourteen years older, but that didn’t seem to matter. Yes, she loved the Beatles; he listened to crooners. But they sang together, played music together, and shared a love of reading, travel, and so much more.

“I thought he’d live forever,” Sue said.

It was her husband Fred who first mentioned that his memory was slipping. Sue shrugged it off and blamed the trauma of his mother dying and the chore of cleaning out her house. But things spiraled down from there.

Sue, a journalist and semi-professional musician, journaled daily during Fred’s illness. It was the some thousand-odd pages that served as the basis for her memoir, No Way Out of This: Living with a Partner with Alzheimer's. She shares the heartache, the guilt, the loneliness but also the good times, the laughs, the happiness.

In this episode of “Older Women & Friends,” Sue and I take a deep dive into this horrendous disease, the challenges, and the tools to use for the caregiver to carry on. Unlike other memoirs about Alzheimer’s, Sue is not a self-sacrificing wife who gives up her life to care for her husband. She understands the necessity of maintaining her connection with friends and the importance of time away to, in her case, write and play music.

“You inherit your genetic blueprint from your parents. But you construct the person that you become. Just because you have a birthday every year, your body need not age yearly.”

_________ Dr. Gillian Lockitch, medical specialist, professor, and international speaker

In her new book, Growing Older, Living Younger: The Science of Aging Gracefully and Retiring (Comfortably), Gillian cites New research that reveals that what you think, how you move, what you eat, how you interact with others, stimulate your mind or challenge yourself, can modulate the expression of your genes.

In this episode, listeners follow Gillian’s journey from a happy woman who “had it all” to a depressed, isolated, overweight widow who, with time, research, and desire, took control of her life and changed her physical and mental health.

Gillian suggests a road map to help us as we age

• Make the choice to age healthily
• Create a roadmap and set goals
• Maintain a positive mindset, be mindful, and exercise your brain
• Evaluate your genetic risk factors and whether you can change them
• Ensure your living environment promotes healthy sleep, activity and nutrition
• Prevent falls and fractures
• Maintain a healthy body weight and avoid the metabolic syndrome
• Ensure you have good antioxidant protection
• Keep your bones strong, your joints mobile, and your muscles flexible
• Love your family
• Nurture your friendships
• Challenge yourself

Gillian explains the differences between genetics and epigenetics. It’s a heady distinction, but she is a pro at breaking this down and suggesting ways to live longer and better.

Growing Older Living Younger podcast https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/growing-older-living-younger-about-longevity-wellness/id1562021011

Get to know Dr. Gillian Lockitch linktr.ee/askdrgill

Gift: the url is https://bit.ly/3DfjdtM The resource is called The 7 Keys to Growing Older Living Younger.

The book at www.gillianlockitch.com

What kinds of changes do you make after a serious health crisis? For Leonie-Ruth Acland the changes after suffering a stroke and taking a year to recover resulted in a recommitment to the mentoring and coaching of women and to her connection with nature on so many levels. Then at age 67, Leonie-Ruth was diagnosed with ADHD. Until then, she'd always wondered why she didn't fit the mold, why staying focused was so hard, and why when she was younger she suffered from anxiety, particularly as a student. Her parents had high expectations and while she eventually met them, she paid a high price. A friend of her father's who'd been hired as a math tutor concluded that there was "a bit missing."

In many ways, the ADHD diagnosis completed the puzzle and was a relief. Like so many other women, the masking, or front, that Leonie-Ruth put forward to pretend to be someone she was not, took a high toll. It was mentally and physically exhausting. Since her diagnosis, Leonie-Ruth realizes that there is NOT something that needs to be fixed and that she is blessed with creativity and intuition as a result of ADHD.

Leonie-Ruth and her husband live on two acres of land in rural New South Wales, Australia. When they first moved in, there were no trees and no grass. Over the years, they've nursed the land back to life. They planted fifty fruit trees, raised ducks, grew vegetables and fruit, and created a space where people could flourish. This intense connection with nature has helped her better understand herself and connect to her inner work and the kindness and love she has for others.

https://pomegranatecircle.com/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/leonie-ruth-acland%F0%9F%8C%B1-746591a/

https://www.instagram.com/dontbecagedbyyourage/reel/C8b-yoZu6NJ/

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/adhd-women-exploring-the-neuroverse/id1739890898

Are you a risk taker? Do you thrive on trying new things, new things that may take you out of your comfort zone?

Helen Hirsh Spence knows all about taking calculated risks. She climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro, among other peaks, reclaimed her life after a bout of depression, and worked in places like Bolivia, and Honduras. She believes in getting out of her comfort zone to "expand, reach, and learn." Oh, did I mention that she was a Jane Goodall Institute board member? Helen knows Jane well and sees her as a role model for older women. "She's ninety, and travels more than 300 days a year to get her message out."

Helen has been a feminist since the early sixties, but as she has aged, she became aware of how she'd internalized many of the stereotypes about older women. "I'd been born into a lifetime of questioning my value as a woman, particularly as an older woman. If I'm feeling this way as an educator, I can't imagine how stereotypes and biases impact other women's lives. I felt like I couldn't or shouldn't do as much." This self-directed ageism led to depression.

"I'm too old to _______________"

"That doesn't suit me _________________"

"I shouldn't wear _______________ because this outfit is only for younger women."

Today, she is comfortable taking calculated risks. "Life is short; there is more work to be done." Helen is a self-described "age provocateur" who wants to provoke people to reframe the whole conversation about aging. She created Top Sixty Over Sixty, a niche consultancy that promotes longevity literacy by providing the tools and training to thrive in today’s aging and multigenerational world.

https://www.topsixtyoversixty.com/

https://www.linkedin.com/events/7259000354451722240/comments/

https://www.topsixtyoversixty.com/blog/

https://www.topsixtyoversixty.com/newsletter-signup/

What's so damn funny about death? Nothing, most folks would say. But not Gail Rubin, Thanatologist/Death Educator.

Let's face it: death is guaranteed 100 percent. It may be the "party that no event planner wants to plan." But don't include Gail among the party poopers.

How did Gail become a death educator? That's a long story but suffice it to say that Gail didn't wake up one morning and say, "I want to be the doyenne of death." For her, it started way back when she was a college student majoring in TV and Film. She didn't know it then, but an end-of-the-year movie project would set the table.

Gail sees herself as the bridge between the general public and end-of-life businesses like funeral homes, cemeteries, and life insurance companies. She is a national speaker who uses film and humor to help break the resistance a majority of people have to talk about death. Barely a third of Americans have had an end-of-life conversation and are completely unprepared when a loved one dies and, conversely, when loved ones are left responsible for your death.

Gail talks about the many important decisions that need to be made by all of us:

• Medical care
• Life Insurance
• Funeral, if any
• Body Distribution: Cremation? Burial (if so, what kind)?
• Wills
• Power of Attorney
• Estate planning
• 
  

Gail encourages us to "Shop before we drop." Get all our goodies in a row before it's too late, and family and friends are left with overwhelming questions about what to do and how to honor your wishes that were never discussed.

Have you heard about a green burial and what that involves? Water-based body distribution? Natural organic reduction? Death doula?

C'mon on. Get with it! Explore your choices. Make decisions. And then breathe a sigh of relief.

"Just like talking about sex doesn't make you pregnant," Gail says, "talking about death doesn't make you dead."

https://agoodgoodbye.com/about-gail/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfjxvL4DSS8

https://www.linkedin.com/in/gailrubinctagoodgoodbye/

https://agoodgoodbye.com/shopping/