Special Project: Senior Housing
As the city’s older population swells, seniors who can no longer live at home face high costs, limited choices
EDITOR'S NOTE: See full profiles of the seniors interviewed by clicking links within the story. A panoply of health issues, including slow-moving Parkinson’s,...
Life in the Later Lane
Stephanie Ernst-Scott runs the last tackle shop in San Francisco. It’s been in her family for 60 years.
Walk through the doors of Gus’ Discount Fishing Tackle, and you’ll likely be greeted before you even...
City College café owner customizes and caters to make students, staff and professors feel at home
Thanks to Alberto Campos, students at City College of San Francisco’s Mission Campus can get an affordable...
One bold step opened up education and a career charting demographics in low-income countries
Sara Seims, an 18-year-old British girl, walked into the admissions office at New York University and knocked...
K.D. Sullivan: From Park Bench to Publishing House
At 15, K.D. Sullivan was homeless, hungry, and sleeping on park benches in Honolulu’s Aina Haina neighborhood....
Retired conference consultant embraces San Francisco and its history with tour of her own neighborhood
As she strolls toward the smallest park in San Francisco, Bonnie Wallsh calls back to the group...
Farm life couldn’t compete with the excitement of big cities and the challenge of the executive life
In college, Bob Britt worked as a night auditor at a roadside Holiday Inn in Southern Illinois....
Successful sous chef finds equilibrium and support after career sidetracked by health and hard times
Jon Insco has been a go-getter most of his life — always hustling for his next adventure....
Being an ‘old soul’ isn’t just about age but an attitude – best nurtured by intergenerational contact
SF SENIORBEAT GUEST COLUMN – There’s a corner of Gen Z internet culture that has popularized the...
How a dedicated teacher of young children became a dedicated civic volunteer.
Sharon Yow’s father drove a truck and tried his hand at farming. Her mother worked a switchboard...
Famed boogie-woogie pianist embroiders her performances with her own hand-crafted art
Caroline Dahl has never forgotten the glamorous, red-haired woman in a sequined dress she saw at a...
The biggest, best walk – and bath of a lifetime.
Tina Martin SENIORBEAT GUEST COLUMN – I love San Francisco, and I love to walk. So when...
‘So hard, all the losses and pain:’ Personal and world tragedies led daughter of Holocaust survivors to life of helping others help others
Juliet Rothman was living in Annapolis, Maryland, in 1992 when her 21-year-old son Daniel attempted a double...
Rock ‘n’ roll and diamonds shaped the life of Arthur Indenbaum
WRITER'S NOTE: Arthur Indenbaum died on November 28, 2025, with his wife and daughter by his side....
All Posts
After years running a print shop, émigré ‘choinkan’ player finds youthful memories and soul solace in traditional Chinese melodies
John Choy gets cold when performing outdoors; he’s almost 100. So, he wears a heavy padded jacket with long sleeves. When he plays his butterfly harp or banjo, his long fingers emerge from the cuffs like sea anemones to float effortlessly across the strings. Choy has over 300 songs in a repertoire of traditional Chinese ...
BofA offices were set up just like ‘Mad Men,’ recalls Stonestown senior and graduate of the famed Katharine Gibbs ‘white glove’ secretarial school
Kathy Schmidt went to high school in Kansas, where her father taught singing at the college level. Her mother taught high school until she married. Schmidt graduated with a bachelor’s degree in English literature and a minor in Spanish from Wheaton College in Massachusetts. But in the early ’50s, a woman with that kind of ...
Child of WWII Germany chooses economics study as a way to learn about and contribute to society
Education, formal and informal – was the air, bread, and water of Hartmut Fischer’s reality from the age four – in a farming village where higher education was dismissed as valueless. “I was the only one in a community of 60 children to reach higher,” he said. For the sons and daughters of the area’s ...
Retired tech executive carries the thread, joining friends to create a “mask-making” village at a time of crucial need
Before the pandemic, Joan Lasselle, 74, was enjoying the life of the recently retired. “People would just reach out to me and ask if I would be interested in volunteering. The thing about retirement is when things come along, I can say ‘yes’ instead of ‘no.’” Forty years after founding and being CEO of Lasselle-Ramsay, ...
Dance professional uses light touch, eye contact and dialogue to guide seniors and those with disabilities through yoga movements
When Dina Lisha visited her mother in her board and care home, she was horrified to see how withdrawn and depressed the residents were. So, she went in the day room, turned on some music and encouraged the residents in simple movements. “It was astonishing to see their dim eyes come to life – responding, ...
KCSM jazz man has been a nightclub owner, Oakland Raiders player , reporter and marriage counselor – but music is what makes his soul sing
It’s a typical Saturday morning for Sonny Buxton. He’s up early, fixes himself a bowl of oatmeal and gathers up a stack of CDs he’s going to play during his morning broadcast at KCSM. By 8.45, his son is at the door of his South San Francisco home, and they drive to the College of ...
