My poor parents. Devout Southern Baptists, they permitted minimal TV in our house. Music? Cue the hymnal. Two church services on Sunday and one on Wednesday evenings were the week’s outings. The only movies we were allowed were religious (e.g., “The Ten Commandments” and “Ben Hur”) or Disney (“Cinderella” and...

They don’t wake to breakfast in bed or hand-drawn cards slipped under the door. There is no chorus of “Happy Mother’s Day” or “Happy Father’s Day” rising from the hallway. Instead, a cry comes at 2:14 a.m., thin as a wire, insistent as weather. The quiet arithmetic of survival — diapers, deadlines, rent, slee...

This month, Senior News is all about those revered paragons, mothers and fathers. Because, as John Steinbeck said, “It takes courage to raise children.” For context, I reread tributes I wrote for both parents’ memorials, which made me a little weepy. Mom was 84 in 2014 when she went on to “The Next Big Thing....

Throughout my childhood, there were long trips down from Santa Monica to Corona Del Mar with Mom, Dad and my two sisters, Janet and Debbie. All us kids sat in the back of my dad’s white flatbed truck, clinging to the wooden guardrails while we whipped down the highway at 70 mph. Can’t do anything fun like tha...

Lavina Bowers, the matriarch of her large Yurok family, sits with her daughter, Susan Masten, in the living room of her home, perched above the mouth of the Klamath River on a shoulder of Req-woi Hill. Below is the stretch of the river where Lavina, when she was 43, and her mother, Geneva Mattz, then 74, rowe...

Speakers and audience alike were enthusiastic, engaged and — at the end of the day-long Supporting Healthy Aging Conference in Eureka in May — hopeful about prospects for growing older for themselves and others in Humboldt County. The annual conference, sponsored by the Humboldt Senior Resource Center (HSRC),...

Nutritious food is essential for health, but for individuals managing chronic illness or recovering from serious medical conditions, the right food can be as important as medicine. The Humboldt Senior Resource Center’s Senior Nutrition Program originally provided medically tailored meals designed by registere...

A Memory Café is a fun, welcoming gathering for people experiencing memory loss and for those who care about them — caregivers, family members and friends. These informal get-togethers are a place to relax, connect with others who have shared life experiences and challenges, and to enjoy companionship in a co...