Seniors Launch New Careers Exhibitors At Fair Display Results Of Their Newfound Passions

So what do senior citizens do when they retire from their careers? Why, start another one, of course.

Members at the Southside Senior Activity Center spent Tuesday showing their wares at the “First Annual Second Career Fair.”

Enterprising seniors displayed everything from artwork to Avon at the show, which ran all day and featured 10 tables of goodies.

“We thought, ‘Why not celebrate the fact that people are embarking on another career after retiring?” said Myrna Johnson-Ross, center director.

Donna Kyle covered her table with the oil paintings she just began doing 18 months ago. When she retired from nursing two years ago, she said, she needed a new passion.

“I always thought that when I retired I could paint,” she said. “But I didn’t have a clue if I could do it.”

Kyle took an oil-painting class soon after.

“The first class I went to, I painted a winter scene and I cried,” she said. “I didn’t ever know I could do this.”

Her paintings show vivid nature scenes and lake cabins. She said she’s found her true second career.

Margaret Wenk came to the fair to display her watercolors of the wildflowers from her native Libby, Mont. Her sheer paintings showed the maroon wild geraniums and deep purple monk’s hood that she says “pop up in Libby four or five feet tall when the snow is still melting out of the mountains.”

Wenk has been painting “longer than I care to admit,” she laughs. “Probably 50 years. As an only child, one has to entertain oneself.”

Wenk worked for years as a layout editor for a science publication in New York after receiving her degree in chemistry from Oregon State University.

Now retired, she works on commission - painting “whatever speaks to somebody - particular areas people love, sometimes houses or places where they were brought up.”

Bert and Natalie Bonney are a true team effort since they retired. They make everything from birdhouses to jewelry.

Bert crafts the houses, and Natalie decorates them with silk flowers and ribbons.

“We’ve worked all our lives,” said Natalie. “We don’t sit, we don’t watch TV during the day and we don’t nap. So my husband got a few tools, and here we are.”

The Bonneys are well-known in their neighborhood, where they often teach crafts classes to neighborhood children. They also make the local arts and crafts show circuit. They already have birdhouses made for two upcoming craft shows.

Jean Atteberry, who retired three years ago, started a second career as an Avon salesperson.

“I thought it would be a kind of fun thing to do,” she said. “I get out and meet people and get fresh air.

“I’m not in it to make a lot of money. I’m in it for fun. I need contact still with people.”

All seniors do.

“We want to keep people busy and happy and active,” said Johnson-Ross. “The fair is a way to give support to what each is doing.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Photo