Life in the Later Lane
Three generations of a San Francisco family thrived running popular oceanside eatery overlooking Sutro Baths
It was, you might say, the last breakfast. On a summer Saturday in 2020, dozens of family...
Art and science vied for Sarah Young’s heart: Both found a place
Few who end up in the hospital are likely to be thinking about whether there’s a sufficient,...
Baking for bodily autonomy: Nan Wiener tackles controversial end of Roe v. Wade with brownies, macaroons, muffins and more
SENIOR BEAT GUEST COLUMN – Many years ago, I spent a year baking desserts in a restaurant...
New author and former drinker embracing alternative therapies to help others break the habit
Seated in the backroom of a café on Polk Street, Kevagne Kalisch leans against the wall and...
From fisherman to cook to inmate to owner: Frankie Balistreri’s odyssey to opening his dream restaurant
When his mother, Lucrezia, was diagnosed with cancer, then 25-year-old Frankie Gaetano Balistreri cared for her at...
Wisdom of the Japanese Tea Garden helped volunteer Chrisie Giordano come to accept a child’s absence
It’s an overcast summer morning, and Chrisie Giordano is leading a tour of Golden Gate Park’s Japanese...
It’s the little things that count for Margaret Lew, swept up in the world of miniature craftmanship
If you think dollhouses are just for children, you haven’t met the artisans and collectors, like Margaret...
Desire to learn mah-jongg helped Stephanie Riger overcome her own biases toward seniors
SENIOR BEAT GUEST COLUMN – Even though I’m 78 years old, I have resisted seeing myself as...
Retirement can be scary. Library worker hoping the end of his career will be the start of a happy new chapter
Seventy-one-year-old Richard Marino is on the cusp of retirement. And it’s making him anxious. He’s gone through...
German Gonzalez, the maestro of Golden Gate Park, has spread music and joy for more than 50 years
He was in the sixth grade and really wanted to be in the school band. But his...
At 67, Lauren McNamara has embarked on a new career and she’s charming customers at a downtown hotspot.
Lauren McNamara makes sure to remember where the regular clientele at Sam’s Grill like to sit. She...
You can get — almost — anything you want at Joseph Omran’s Nob Hill grocery store
LeBeau Market calls itself Nob Hill’s Community Grocery Store, where you can get almost everything: from Lay’s...
Deborah Drysdale: social justice evangelist, bridge instructor, and amateur mixologist
Summers for Deborah Drysdale meant idyllic days at her grandparents’ cattle ranch in the Blue Ridge mountains...
Jonah Raskin: Tireless Bay Area peace activist, prolific writer, and educator
Jonah Raskin was 10 in 1952, during the height of the anti-communist fervor of the Cold War....
She brought the magic to the screen, finding the perfect San Francisco location to shoot movies, TV shows, and commercials
If you’d been walking along one of the steepest streets in San Francisco one sunny afternoon in...
She relives history as a guide on the SS Jeremiah O’Brien, one of the WWII Liberty ships that brought troops and cargo to Normandy beaches
Eve Maher hands out programs to visitors boarding the SS Jeremiah O’Brien for a tour and memorial...
Pen pals from afar build rich relationship over 60 years through old-fashioned correspondence – no WhatsApp about it
A SENIOR BEAT GUEST COLUMN – My correspondence with Jutta Mengersen (now Brockhaus), the “World’s Ideal Pen...
This Mexican immigrant fought in the ring, started a dozen restaurants, raised five children, and never let defeat wear him down.
When 17-year-old Jose Heriberto Garcia came courting the young girl who’d become his wife, his future mother-in-law...
The ghosts of San Francisco’s past are still there if you only look and listen
SENIOR BEAT COLUMN: I got my first job in San Francisco nearly 40 years ago, in the...
Mutual support but separate hobbies and workshops keep crafty couple’s marriage going strong
A stained glass window by Bill and a "fishing" quilt Etta made for him adorn a hallway...
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WHAT’S NEW WITH YOU? I resurrected a relationship with an old friend: the piano.
For me, the pandemic emphasized life is short, and time is precious. It’s not like I didn’t already know that; it’s just that the pandemic brought my feelings into sharp focus. I began thinking what I could do within my control at this late stage of my life that could bring me pleasure and satisfaction? ...
Many ‘angels’ guided gay activist through life’s turmoils, and eventually, to executive roles in counseling and social responsibilty
When he was 15, Duff Axsom said, he met “one of the most important people in my life.” It was Genevieve Fiore, women’s rights and peace activist, and the founder of the Colorado Division of the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). A member of one of the UNESCO Youth Clubs, he met ...
One of nation’s first, ordained female Presbyterian ministers can’t stop doing what she thinks is right
Every Thursday afternoon before 5 p.m., the Rev. Glenda Hope picks up her Black Lives Matter sign and walks over to Geneva Avenue for her weekly vigil. Within a few minutes, neighbors and friends arrive, hoisting their signs. While some drivers honk, most do not. “Still, it makes a difference,” she said. Hope has devoted ...
Storied San Francisco dance school owes its existence to a feisty wife whose legacy is a dance “family” of 70 years
The trajectory of Micky Powell’s career path was lovingly set over 40 years ago by her mother, a professional ballet and Armenian folk dancer. When Ruth Jevarian retired in 1974, she turned her Inner Sunset District school, Star Dance Studio, over to her daughter. “It was a natural thing; the studio was in the basement,” ...
What do you find in nature? All I wanted was a little peace.
I wanted spiritual feelings, but I didn’t know what they felt like. I just knew that people said feeling spiritual gives one a sense of peace and I badly wanted that. I was a stressful, anxious person in need of rehabilitation. Religion didn’t move me. Meditation, acupuncture and massage helped me physically, even mentally and ...
Sculptor & jeweler who finds inspiration in the sea, land and found objects discovers art in her own baldness
Ann Hedges began losing her hair when she was just nine years old. She started drawing to cope, “creating a world that was mine, and one I belonged in,” she said. “Along with having alopecia areata, I was short for my age and painfully shy.” With both a bachelor’s and master’s degree in Fine Arts ...
