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Mom and I had vastly different dress styles: elegant tops and skirts vs. cargo pants and T-shirts. As we’ve aged, we’ve swapped

August 18, 2022 All Posts 16 Comments

A SENIOR BEAT COLUMN It got hot in Carmel, and I was wearing my San Francisco fog clothes:  jeans, turtleneck, sweatshirt.  I’d left the misty, chilly city in early morning darkness and driven 125 miles south to visit my invalid mom, 95, at my childhood home in Carmel-by-the-Sea. Oddly, despite the coastal closeness, it was ...

Threats in Guatemala spark activist’s journey to a new land and language; after homelessness and despair, he finds resurrection in helping others like himself

May 24, 2022 All Posts

Gonzalo Guoron arrived every morning at 5:45 a.m., threw open the doors at 6 a.m., and ushered 50 to 90 tired souls up all night in the cold into the warmth of the Episcopal Church of Saint John the Evangelist. Until the pandemic closed those doors, Guoron was a hospitality monitor for the Mission District ...

Somewhere between old age and hospice, there’s a phase called ‘docent.’ I’m fulfilling mine at Point Lobos.

April 4, 2022 All Posts 10 Comments

Through college and grad school, I successfully avoided science courses.  I took only two: astronomy and natural history, which my husband called “Our Friend, Mr. Sun,” and “The Chicken: A Natural History.” When he met me, I was 32, and he was incredulous I’d survived that long, given my complete lack of understanding of how ...

Nicaraguan refugee makes a life as bank teller, school aide and house cleaner – with some perks from customers who became friends

March 31, 2022 All Posts 1 Comment

Guess Elba Balderramos’s job, a gig where grateful clients paid for her to cruise to Mexico, Alaska, Hawaii and the Panama Canal, and one promised to leave her $50,000 in her will. Trusted family lawyer? Investment Advisor? Nope. Balderramos, now 79, is a bank teller at the Bank of America in San Francisco, where she’s ...

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