Life in the Later Lane
Playwright Lynne Kaufman, the author of two dozen plays and five novels, is still going strong, despite some hiccups
The day after Lynne Kaufman retired in 2005, she woke up in tears. “What had I done?”...
A win for people power: Supervisors and mayor restore millions of dollars in cut to services for city’s most vulnerable
A months-long campaign by advocates for seniors, the disabled and other vulnerable populations has convinced San Francisco's...
Following in the footsteps of heroes: My visit to the cradles of Civil Rights
SF SENIORBEAT COLUMN – March 17, 1886. A date you probably never considered. Carroll County, Mississippi. A...
Couple’s script for their own movie? Shared creative passions and a bent for banter
“I'm Chiquita Banana, and I'm here to say, bananas have to ripen in a certain way,” Margot...
Social justice lawyer and activist infusing others with her love of SF’s Great Blue Herons and dedication to conservation
One day in 1993, on her daily walk from her Richmond District home to Golden Gate Park’s...
Nonprofit director is happy to bug you, whether you’re 2 or 92, about saving the wild
If you grow up in Los Angeles, where do you find the wild? Norm Gershenz is not...
Bass playing lawyer takes on the landlords when seniors call for help
During the day, you’ll find Thomas Drohan in court or at his law office on Mission Street....
Former SFSU teacher shifts to helping union workers build leadership abilities
Like some people need coffee, Joan Wong needs to walk – and talk. Mornings, she puts in...
Joe Edley, a three-time national champion, has been racking up great Scrabble scores for decades
Joe Edley tucks his co-authored book, “Everything Scrabble,” under his arm and surveys the room. Around him,...
Robert Wachter, the doctor who is pioneering the use of artificial intelligence to treat patients
Robert Wachter is the doctor who oversees all the other doctors at the University of California, San...
Couple beat ‘fast furniture,’ pandemic and other challenges to keep upholstery shop going for nearly 50 years
J & G Upholstery stretches back farther than it looks from the sidewalk on Balboa Street. Stacks...
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...
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Pharmaceuticals saleswoman pivots to career in naturopathic medicine
While working for a pharmaceutical company selling drugs to relieve hypertension, Victoria Hamman remembers, she read a study that said exercise and diet could cure it. Although a doctor told her people would never follow through, the idea was planted. Today, as a doctor of naturopathy, exercise and diet plans are standards in the toolbox of therapies she prescribes ...
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, ...
