News About Aging

By Marcia Z. Siegal

March is National Professional Social Work Month. It honors the invaluable contributions of the professionals who help people solve and cope with problems in their everyday lives. This month, Milestones showcases three of Philadelphia Corporation for Aging’s (PCA’s) dedicated social work professionals. While their roles vary, they all have a passion for the work they do to help older adults age with optimal quality of life.

By Michael Hanisco

Whether it’s needed to pay the bills, a way to earn extra pocket money, or simply a strategy to stay engaged with others, many people end up returning to the workplace after retirement. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, between 1977 and 2007, the employment rate for workers 65 and older rose by 101 percent.

By Linda L. Riley

Lev Saunders is working on becoming everyone’s favorite grandson – the one they can call on when they need help with computers, printers, cell phones or other electronic gadgets.

By Maggie Davenport

(Reader submission)

I decided to take a new approach to employment in mid-life. This alternate approach was fueled by a vagabond aura that has been part of me for as long as I can remember. And my new approach has a multitude of positives – particularly as I age. I have always been fairly “location independent,” meaning that I do not feel restricted to working in one area. I rent my home, so I am not bound to one place by a mortgage. The opportunities and advantages available to me are limited only by imagination and a little nerve. Location independence can be considered a lifestyle, and as such, it is easy to live your passions while pursuing goals and making a living.

By Marcia Z. Siegal

In the midst of their careers, Philadelphia Corporation for Aging (PCA) social workers Marquetta Bond, Edda Weber and Frederick Pence traveled abroad individually to study social work in other countries. Through their experiences, they gained new perspectives and deepened their appreciation of cultural diversity – an advantage in working with PCA’s long-term care participants, they said.

By Constance Garcia-Barrio

If the colors and patterns in Nancy Lisagor’s embroidered pillows came with sound effects, you might hear popping firecrackers or the wild conclusion of Ravel’s “Bolero” upon seeing them.

Lisagor, 68, creates precise needlepoint designs consisting of upright stitches laid in a mathematical pattern. This method, known as bargello, was developed in Italy and Hungary centuries ago. The name originates from a series of chairs found in the Bargello palace in Florence that have a flame stitch pattern. Other classic bargello shapes include diamonds and medallions, but patterns can vary depending on the arrangement of the vertical stitches. Lisagor often gives the shapes a twist and selects hues that almost cry aloud.

By Linda L. Riley

Tina Pritchard has felt compelled to create beauty, in one form or another, for as long as she can remember. In service of that drive, she has embarked on an eclectic variety of pursuits, from textile arts to baking to gardening, some income-producing, others not. Her most recent undertaking is making malas, strings of prayer beads used in meditation.

By Frank Burd

Milestones writer Frank Burd interviewed Ed Asner when the renowned longtime actor performed his one-man show, “A Man and His Prostate,” at Bucks County Playhouse last month. Burd met him backstage after the performance, which he is touring with.

By Barbara Sherf

Famed Philadelphia Daily News and Philadelphia Inquirer cartoonist Signe Wilkinson was the first female political cartoonist to receive the Pulitzer Prize, which happened in 1992. Sometimes ideas for her political cartoons, which appear on Philly.com as well as in print, come to her while she rows on the Schuylkill River. But more often it is while she reads three newspapers and a myriad of websites each morning that ideas occur. After sketching several ideas, she runs her favorites by editors and then hits the drawing board, literally.