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: Full profiles of the seniors interviewed will be published each day after today's introductory story. Publishing dates are noted in the...
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
Reframing Aging – Leadership never gets old: Retired youth counselor helped families overcome ‘disconnectedness’
Mario Martinez is not a lonely man. He’s married and has four daughters, four sons-in-law and nine grandchildren. Yet the 65-year-old retired family therapist talks and thinks about loneliness quite a bit. “Sometimes isolation is forced upon us by health concerns, but a lot of times isolation is a choice,” he said. “And if you ...
Inveterate socializer helps infuse St. Francis Square with activities and now, a special celebration of that work
Jimmye Bynum was such a talkative, sociable person that one of her employers told her she should have been a lawyer. Her natural gift to engage with others led to choices that always seemed to benefit others, as well as herself. “I always loved to talk and help people and maybe that’s why my life ...
Reframing Aging – Caring never gets old: Bus stop chats with lonely seniors – of all ethnicities – fulfill Navajo elder’s ideals
It was one of those “aha” moments. Marianne Spencer Harvey was watching a concert on KQED some years ago. She was singing along and really enjoying herself when the camera panned across the audience: “And there were all those people with white hair. And it finally hit me. I’m in this generation,” she recalled. Still, ...
Despite its challenges, wife and mother says hearing loss a lesson in human nature that brought family closer
Blanche Capilos has severe hearing loss. It has its advantages, she said wryly. In noisy places like a mall or in restaurants, she can turn down the volume on her hearing aids. And she no longer has to hear her husband snore; she takes them out at night. “It’s my secret to a long, happy ...
Under cover of Self-Help for Elderly job, fund director is Cantonese Opera star
Josephine Ma had been explaining her agency’s nutrition programs when she suddenly stood up. “Wait, I’ll be right back.” A minute later she returned holding a stack of photographs. One showed a dainty maiden with a chalk-white face, dark black eyebrows and lashes, vivid red bowed lips and a magnificent headdress. “Here’s me, and here, ...
San Francisco’s ‘Woman Lawn Bowler of the Year’ touts age-old sport that’s got something for every age
Christine Raher had never won a trophy in her life, despite being a team competitor in tenpin bowling throughout college. But within eight years of taking up lawn bowling in San Francisco, she has twice been named Woman Lawn Bowler of the Year by the venerable Golden Gate Park club. Raher has been a member and ...
