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...
All Posts
Coping with Covid-19: Perspective, resilience and optimism buoys seniors’ apartment building
It takes a lot to scare 90-year-old Esther Goldberg. She survived the Holocaust, hiding for years from the Nazis who occupied Brussels. Martin Pennisi, 82, has a high threshold for fear as well. He spent more than a decade in a combat zone during the Vietnam War – with shrapnel scars to prove it. And ...
Architect embraces ‘the magic’ of chocolate in a second career where he blends creativity with science of the craft
That year in Paris. It was everything 32-year-old David Upchurch had dreamed of. The streets, the galleries, the shows, the people. A charming apartment not far from the Moulin Rouge. A chocolate shop at one end of the block, a patisserie at the other. “That first truffle was magical. I spent all my money on ...
Older adults grappling with layoffs and rising costs of living swell the workforce
EDITOR’S NOTE: If you know of any seniors who are, for whatever reason, still working – in the public arena or at home – and willing to share their experience, please contact robinevans@sfseniorbeat.com. Once, or so the story goes, a cake and a gold watch signaled the end of one’s working life and the beginning ...
Coping with Covid-19: Volunteers, donations help Meals on Wheels keep delivering to clients
For 50 years, Meals on Wheels San Francisco has been serving home-bound seniors who, even in the best of times, cannot access nutritious meals due to health issues, financial situations or both. Meal delivery also connects seniors to a network of services that allows them to live in their homes with dignity and independence. In 2019, ...
Recology driver not ready to recycle his customers, though he’s eligible for retirement
Bernard Lewis walked to his car, opened the door, unlocked the glove compartment and pulled out a Ziploc bag. “These,” he said, “are some of the letters and photos my customers sent me.” Crayoned notes from young children, photos of smiling families on vacation, ‘thank you’ letters. He handled them carefully. Lewis drives for Recology ...
Coping with Covid-19: Futon maker shifts SF factory production to masks; and she’s ‘frankly overwhelmed’
During World War II, auto plants stopped making cars and instead churned out tanks. Factories designed to produce washing machines retooled and started manufacturing aircraft parts, and clothing manufacturers turned out uniforms by the millions. That’s what a country does when it faces an existential crisis. Now there’s another crisis: the coronavirus pandemic that has ...
