So this, my farewell story, ran in today's Spokesman-Review. After 28 years here, I'm trading journalism for an encore career in health care. And this blog officially now belongs to my co-writer Catherine Johnston. Thanks for reading EndNotes. Please continue reading. And thanks for reading…
Finally got around to watching the Glee episode in which they addressed the death of Finn Hudson, played by Cory Monteith, a talented young actor who sadly overdosed in July. The episode was excellent. And you could tell the tears were quite real. My weird…
My mother's 92-year-old friend, Magaret, showed me her lovely, covered patio the other day. There are four chairs among flower pots and other garden decorations. She said she used to sit in the chairs with her husband, sister-in-law and brother-in-law and they'd talk and laugh…
In Monday's Boomer U, we ran an excerpt of the book Rain Delayed by Linda Merkel Walline. Her father Paul Merkel led a Whitworth College baseball team to a national championship in 1960, against great odds and on a shoestring budget. Walline researched and wrote…
Mahatma Gandhi was born on this day in 1869. The peacemaker at the forefront of India's freedom from colonialism would be sainted, if we Catholics could claim him. Yesterday, a friend I hadn't seen in a long while, VJ Pavani, stopped in the newsroom with…
There's a guy who drives a white van -- he's white, in his 40s, skinny, short hair and black beard -- who has been approaching Spokane County children and trying to lure them into his van. (Read second story in this briefs column.) It's terrible…
The State of Aging and Health in America 2013 just released its annual report today. The collaborative report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services lists a report card in one section that measures how…
My Sunday story was about the sisters of the Holy Names celebrating 125 years in Spokane. As a Marycliff High School girl, I was taught by the Franciscan Sisters of the Perpetual Adoration, but Marycliff and Holy Names girls knew each other well, usually because…
We spent two days in Yellowstone Park recently, and many of the park rangers and volunteers looked boomer age and older. Lots of silver hair. I watched the three pictured here work the desk in the busy visitor center at Old Faithful. They graciously answered…
I keep a list in my head of all the things I'll do in my older years, if I feel lonely, sad, neglected. After a recent -- and first -- trip to Yellowstone Park, I've added a new one. I will become a "geezer geyser…
In my Monday Boomer U story, I profiled two women who faced serious situations they could not change and decided instead to change themselves. Now they're helping others do the same. Susie Leonard Weller survived stage 3 colon cancer but uses a permanent colostomy; Peggy…
Facebook has its downsides, for sure, but one thing it does well is connect communities that grieve. Som Jordan, freelance music critic with a long history at The Spokesman-Review, died yesterday. See story. On Facebook, people who knew Som from all the worlds he traveled…
Fresh from the U.S. Census today: The percentage of households with a microwave climbed from 82 percent in 1992 to 97 percent in 2011. Similarly, the percentage with a computer jumped from 21 percent to 78 percent over the period. Landline phones followed the opposite…
At my desk, taped to a wall I glance at between writing and reporting tasks, I now have hanging this drawing by Mitchell Raymond. In my Monday Boomer U story about the drawing, I explained: In November, Mitchell showed his “Wampa” – Mike Davey –…
Thanks to my former colleague, Doug Floyd, for taking up his pen again and writing our main Labor Day story today in the Boomer U section. One of my favorite lines: "I loved my job, and I miss the friends and the engagement with events…
Kudos to Karen Erickson of Spokane who was a reporter for the Spokane Chronicle in 1963 when Gail Caldwell of Marycliff High School was named the city's first black Lilac Princess. See my story about the historic event. Erickson filled in a bit of disturbing…
I don't know how this report will affect the hiring of 65-plus cab drivers, delivery drivers or truck drivers, but it should give us all pause. I guess if you're looking for an encore career after 65, you might try a line of work that…
The 20s are a tough decade for most. You usually look good, but all that drama! Here's another reason to be glad the 20s have passed you by. In your 50s and 60s, you likely won't be in nightclubs featuring foam parties. Here's an excerpt…
My Sunday story was about Gail Caldwell Bonner, Spokane's first black Lilac Princess, elected in 1963 from Marycliff High School in Spokane. I interviewed Gail and three of the friends who rallied around her to get her nominated 50 years ago in a history making…
In September 2006, more than a year before the housing boom busted and the Great Recession descended upon the land, the Inland Northwest was dotted with construction cranes, the outward sign of the good times. The new tower at The Spokane International Airport was being…
If socialization is essential to healthy aging, it makes sense that extroverts -- who tend to thrive in crowds and at parties - would do better in their older years. A study in the Journal of Research in Personality, as reported at HealthDayNews, "found that…
A good doctor of the kind depcited in Norman Rockwell paintings died last week. Alex VanderWilde, our family physician, passed on. Read his obituary. He was born in 1926 and lived through a unique experience during World War II. I wrote about him in 2003.…
My mother, 92, has been pretty disciplined all her life about eating and exercising, one reason she likely outlived all her siblings, a husband and an older-age boyfriend. But she always had one secret passion -- chocolate. She eats several pieces of chocolate most days…
My Sunday story, on Spokane firefighter Mike Rose, is sweeping its way on Facebook. Wish I could claim my writing. But I think Spokesman-Review photo journalist and videographer Colin Mulvany's spectacular photo is the reason. He took this at the funeral of firefighter John Knighten…
My Boomer U story today was about newlyweds Theresa and Joe Phillips who married July 20. She was 68. He was 81. Neither expected to marry again. But they fell madly in love a few years ago and tied the knot. No one knows how…
Spokesman-Review features writer Rebecca Nappi, along with writer Catherine Johnston of Olympia, Wash., discuss here issues facing aging boomers, seniors and those experiencing serious illness, dying, death and other forms of loss.