Erica Curless

Eddy Birrer loves basketball. It’s that simple. Age is irrelevant to the 70-year-old Gonzaga University accounting professor who has shot hoops since about age 7, when he got a sports set that included a rubber football, baseball and basketball. “I sometimes ask if anyone knows CPR before a game begins,” Birrer said in his dry tone.

Nancy Curtis’ first chemotherapy treatment at Spokane Valley Cancer Center was Halloween 2013. Terrified and anxious, she sat waiting for the needle, infusion of chemicals and the unknown. Then a woman offered her an impromptu reiki treatment.

Aging is Nick Beamer’s passion, which makes his retirement last week after nearly 28 years as executive director of Aging and Long Term Care of Eastern Washington an interesting juxtaposition for a man who now must live what he’s preached. It’s his turn to live longer, healthier and remain in his home – the very goal of the five-county agency that provides a myriad of services for seniors 60 and older and younger people with disabilities.

The talk is familiar. The girls chat about their clothes. They giggle. They roll their eyes about bum boyfriends, men who are scared to get too close. Then the band starts and they are on the dance floor in a big group, girls dancing with girls. The boys are late. When they arrive they sit and watch, act aloof. Perhaps they may get out and dance after a little bit of bottled courage. Of course, there are only a few compared to the 20-plus women.

Jill Ciccarello’s sister died of cancer. Lorrie Stonehocker’s husband is still battling cancer that has caused him to lose organs, including part of his stomach, as the chemo is shutting down his kidneys. Yet these cancer nightmares have inspired both Spokane women to help other cancer patients through yoga – the ancient practice that encompasses the physical, mental and spiritual.

Baby boomer Mike Ball couldn’t find a job when he moved to Spokane even though he had many skills and a strong resume: college degree, U.S. Air Force veteran, 16 years in the insurance industry working with asbestos litigation and two decades as a professional pilot. Too old. Not the right skills. Out of the workforce too long. All rejections commonly heard as he applied for more than 175 jobs in a year, while the recently divorced Ball maxed out credit cards to pay the mortgage and feed his two teenagers. Connecting with the Senior Community Service Employment Program saved him and helped him land secure, long-term employment so he can rebuild his life at age 61.

Hockey has no age limit. It’s a lifelong sport, so say the women in the newly formed Silver Skaters – a division of Spokane Women’s Hockey League for women age 50 and older … much older. Olga Pasher is 75. Sharon Meyer is 72. Nancy Kellner is 69. Deb Kyle is 63. The other gals are youngsters in their 50s.

If Shirley Alexander and her husband die unexpectedly, they know exactly what will happen to their three beloved cats. Chloe, Oliver and Sophie are included in their will, just like their Spokane Valley home, valuables and money. It directs that the cats, all adopted from local shelters, go to SpokAnimal for adoption.

Lisa Wright is doing 2015 big. After 35 years in Sandpoint, this 60-year-old baby boomer is uprooting her entire life and moving with her two dogs to Spokane in search of better work, cheaper rent and a new adventure.

If anyone ever noticed, which is unlikely, it appears that Linda Moulder and Jerry White have smoke detectors in every room and a few other peculiar places – inside the refrigerator, for instance – in their Forest Estates home in Spokane’s Rockwood Retirement Community. Visitors are much more interested in watching April the cat, a voluptuous calico Manx, wait for the automatic cat food dispenser to go off.

Marcy Kennedy is a serious baby boomer – divorcing after 37 years, adjusting to an empty nest, caring for her 91-year-old father and climbing Mount Adams, at 12,276 feet the second highest peak in Washington. All were inevitable, except nobody, especially her three adult sons, could fathom Kennedy with crampons and an ice ax scrambling over lava rocks and glacier, through thin oxygen, to the summit of a mountain. She took them camping once as young children, but it was too dirty, too wet and too much cooking.

Sometimes being apart is what makes the union so great. So it is for the Wailin’ Jennys, the Canadian-based folk/roots act known for its three-part harmonies, songwriting and voluptuous acoustic arrangements. The trio – Nicky Mehta, Ruth Moody and Heather Masse – plays the Bing Crosby Theater on Sunday, the last stop in Washington state after two sold-out dates in Seattle, plus shows in Yakima and Omak. It’s also the last show before the band takes a break for the holidays.

When it comes to physicians, patients have to remember one thing: Doctors are human, too. That was the advice from retired physician Jim Arthurs during a gathering of the popular Geezer Forum on Tuesday in Sandpoint. Nearly 60 people, mostly in the 60-plus crowd, attended Arthurs’ talk on “How Doctors Think.”

Barbara Peterka Newbry’s past is no longer hidden away in boxes, a faded memory worth only a passing mention to grandkids who couldn’t comprehend that their grandmother was a world-class athlete in a sport representing the heritage of the entire region. After 50 years, it took just one phone call to transport Newbry back to 1962, when she was a scrappy 17-year-old girl from the woods of North Idaho who could roll a log faster than any other woman in the country – earning her a world log rolling, or roleo, championship.

No mom jeans are in this fashion show – even though many of the models are not only moms and dads, but grandparents. The clothes might come straight off the racks at The Thrift Store run by the Post Falls Senior Center, yet they are anything but dull, frumpy and threadbare.

Stephanie Ekloff is excited to share her new knowledge about death with everyone she knows: her 92-year-old grandmother, her aging parents, her children and those seven – almost eight – grandbabies, her husband and the clients she cares for in the Snohomish area. Ekloff is bursting to recommend the “Handbook for Washington Seniors: Legal Rights and Resources” to anyone who may benefit, especially its sections for how to prepare legally for death and ensuring your wishes are known and understood.

Cristina Antles loves people, especially people with some age and history. So she invites them to a big dinner party each month that always includes good entertainment – strictly following her Italian upbringing to feed people and enjoy merrymaking. In fact, the idea for Northwest Dinner Among Friends sparked while she sat with friend Monica Waitt in the back of her uncle’s Spokane restaurant, Ferraros. The two were watching some elderly couples eat and enjoy the day. The pair knew they needed to create a way for seniors to get out and socialize. At the time, both women worked in the senior care industry. Waitt currently works for A Place for Mom.

When Mary Ann Tripp hears the music, the pain of her bum knee floats away and magic happens on the dance floor. The rhythm transports Tripp and her students to younger years when the joints were freer and the posture straighter, allowing feet to fly through rousing clogging of “Louisiana Saturday Night.”

Public radio’s renowned family doctor, Zorba Paster, visits Spokane on Thursday to talk about living a longer, sweeter life while answering audience questions about their personal health conundrums. But the truth is, the good doc and host of the popular national call-in show “Zorba Paster On Your Health” is eager for a burger and malt from Dick’s Hamburgers – Spokane’s iconic burger joint on Third Avenue. He remembers it from his past visit to Spokane and a visit to Seattle. He thinks he even owns an old blue work shirt from Dick’s Hamburgers.

Paulette Miller, of Kellogg, has cared for people all her life – three children, a sick husband and his dying friend. Now her dear friend has cancer and heart problems. So she cares for him, too. But after completing a nursing assistant training program, Miller is getting paid for her caretaking.

Con artists aren’t just targeting the stereotypical old lady at home. It happened just last week to the wife of one of the nation’s experts on online safety – a man who literally locks his laptop to the hotel toilet when he travels so it and his information isn’t stolen and sold. “My laptop is chained in my (car) trunk right now,” Christopher Burgess said Tuesday after speaking at the AARP and Washington Attorney General’s “scam jam” conference in the Spokane Valley.