Board of Directors

Ruth Ann Watkins, President

Melville W. Washburn,
Vice President

Charlotte Damron, Vice President

Mary Ann Schwartz, Secretary

Robert Spoerri, Treasurer

Harvey Adelstein

Jane Curry

Larry Elkins

Marjorie Freed

Jack Hartray

John Hobbs

Christopher Horsch

Laurie Regenbogen

Marcia Opp

Ed Rose

Carol Rosofsky

Richard Stuckey

Dian Weddle

Advisory Council

  Neelum T. Aggarwal, MD

Henry B. Betts, MD

Robyn L. Golden

Robert B. Lifton

Dawn Clark Netsch

Warner Saunders

Joanne G. Schwartzberg, MD

Michael Spock

Dianne S. Campbell

Founding Executive Director

What is "The Conversation"?   

It is that difficult exchange of information that needs to happen when the needs of aging adults collide with the needs of adult children--or sometimes even a spouse.  The collision can take many forms--the parents' unwillingness to "bother" their children reinforced by the child's not wanting to "interfere"; the parent's need for independence versus the child's genuine desire to help; or a spouse's denial of a problem in the face of a demonstrable medical reality.

Despite the difficulty of broaching and actually having that conversation, the important reason to do so lies in the exchange of information. Once family members start talking, complicating factors of misunderstandings, wrong assumptions and misinformation can be eliminated from an already complex situation, clearing the way for solutions and relief.

"I recently worked with a family where the wife was experiencing cognitive impairment and the husband was doing all the caregiving." says Lauren Kessler, a social worker at Rush Senior Care, "He was very resistant to any sort of help, and their adult children were concerned.  We persuaded them to have the conversation as a family and little by little, over time, they developed a support program--at first on a trial basis to ease everyone into it.   

"When family members are introduced to the services that are available to them--maybe even in the home--it generally results in a great feeling of relief," says Kessler. "When spouses or children realize they don't have to do everything, it enhances everyone's life."

Lincoln Park Village's  June 21^st second anniversary event confronts this issue head-on with our program, "The Conversation: Talking Life Issues with Those We Love."

If you are struggling with how to begin this difficult communication in your own family, please consider attending the upcoming event with your family members at your side.  The insights and experiences of our speaker, panel members, and friends and neighbors who will also be attending may give you as a family the inspiration, the courage and the right words to start this important conversation.

(Register for the event here or to join the host committee)  

Call-and-Response:

When Ella Jenkins Calls, You Respond!

Written by Barbara Sandler

Today, on a crisp April morning, Jenkins has graciously agreed to do an interview for the Lincoln Park Village newsletter.Wrapped in her soothing smile and a multi-colored scarf, she arrives at Argo's Tea Café--her near-daily neighborhood hangout.

"It's either red tea or chamomile, if she feels she needs some calming," reveals café manager Jenny Delany.  "Ms. Jenkins is very humble and always has a smile on her face--she gets recognized but keeps a low profile."

Fueled by a sip of tea and a smidge of her croissant, Ella's ready to talk.   Words flow easily, as if caught in the middle of a thought.

"We did things like hand-clapping games and hopscotch and jump rope, marbles," says Jenkins, chuckling nostalgically about her beginnings as an internationally beloved performer. "Not like today's children, who have all those video games and what-not."

With those good-old-days receding, Jenkins was especially delighted to hear about Lincoln Park Village: neighborhood people, lending support so that seniors can remain in their own homes.

"I was very, very happy to find that an organization like this existed--I live in Lincoln Park and I'm a senior and there was an interest in what seniors are doing and some of their needs--I thought that was pretty good!" says Jenkins, who's attended Village gatherings in an atmosphere that she calls "informal," where people "really enjoy being there. It's a nice place to get acquainted, a way of meeting new people--there are lots of folks in the neighborhood--you may have just passed by them--not knowing that they're part of this wonderful group."

Though a longstanding and proud senior, the musician-composer, a 2005 Grammy Award winner for Best Children's Album, finds her groove mingling with the younger set.

"Never just stick to being with seniors--you need to be with a variety of ages," advises Jenkins, now 86, who was born in St. Louis but raised in Chicago.  "Don't be in such another world that you don't understand what's going on today--the mixture of age is important--and friendships can be established!"

Jenkins' youth was carefully orchestrated around education.  Deprived of schooling in the South, her mother later went to night school to complete her eighth-grade education. With her children the message was clear: Education is of primary importance.

"She felt education and being serious in school were very, very important," says Jenkins, who graduated from San Francisco State College in 1951, with a B.A. in sociology. Her brother, Thomas H. Jenkins, got an M.A. degree from at the University of Chicago in sociology and a degree from Harvard in urban planning.  He taught at the University of Cincinnati for 25 years.

But Jenkins always considered herself just a typical kid, doing what came naturally.

"I enjoyed playing games and going to candy stores, if I had penny or two--or I'd see if I could get a lick off of somebody's ice-cream cone."

That was until, to her mother's distress, little Ella's passion turned to marbles.

"That meant I was on my knees a lot and spoiling my stockings and getting my knees dirty, so my mother didn't like it a lot," recalls Jenkins, a performer on all seven continents. "But I just felt everybody should be able to play everything."

Still, life for Jenkins wasn't just a game of marbles.  In addition to school there were chores to be done. Growing up on Chicago's South Side meant that moving day came about every two years for the Jenkins family.

"You'd see people moving to a nicer area, a little upgraded--you could see these moving trucks, filled with all kinds of furniture going to and fro, going back and forth."

And, since Jenkins' mother came from the "old school," moving day signaled hours of manual labor.

"My brother and I had to get down on our knees and scrub up the floors and leave it nice for the next tenants," recalls Jenkins. "Then my mother would investigate the place we were moving into, and if that wasn't in the best shape, my brother and I got down on our knees again."

Though never formally trained as a musician, Jenkins was continuously surrounded by the sound of music.  Choir songs and tambourine sounds spilled from Baptist churches, and radio voices burst from open windows, like loudspeakers.

Along with other neighborhood mothers, Jenkins's mom scraped together enough money for a man who'd told them he was going to open a music school.  All the children were going to be taught piano!

"They collected our money, and the school was supposed to start, but it never opened and we never saw the man again," she says. "He was supposed to teach us piano--maybe I'd be playing piano now if he'd stayed around."

In spite of the Music Man's repertoire of false promises, Jenkins was instinctively drawn to music of every kind.

"I even whistled, though it wasn't popular for girls to whistle. I said, 'If the birds can do it, I can, too.'" 

Click here to continue reading this article.

Mindful Meditation is Good for Your Brain 

[From Bottom Line's Daily Health Newsblog, April 21, 2011]

Participating in an 8-week mindfulness meditation program appears to make measurable changes in brain regions associated with memory, sense of self, empathy and stress.

In a study that appeared in the January 30 issue of Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging, a team led by Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) researchers reported the results of their study, the first to document meditation-produced changes over time in the brain's gray matter.
 
"Although the practice of meditation is associated with a sense of peacefulness and physical relaxation, practitioners have long claimed that meditation also provides cognitive and psychological benefits that persist throughout the day," says Sara Lazar, PhD, of the MGH Psychiatric Neuroimaging Research Program, the study's senior author.  

"This study demonstrates that changes in brain structure may underlie some of these reported improvements and that people are not just feeling better because they are spending time relaxing."

 Click here to continue reading. 

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