Celebrating the PRIME philosophy of healthy aging

PRIME – October 2013 By Debbie Gardner debbieg@thereminder.com Our October issue is always a significant one here at PRIME. Most importantly, it marks our anniversary month. In 2013, PRIME celebrates its 21st anniversary, acknowledging the vision of our parent paper, The Reminder's, founder, Carlo Buendo, who decided in 1995 to create a monthly product to serve the information needs of what he saw as a growing niche segment of readers. Back then the product, known as Senior Prime Times', was one of several monthly publications targeting the mature readers in Western Massachusetts. Today, PRIME is the only product that has consistently served this market for more than two decades. October is also the month that PRIME dedicates to supporting breast cancer research. Years ago I interviewed Lucy Giuggio Carvalho, the founder of the Pioneer Valley's annual Rays of Hope – A Walk Toward the Cure for Breast Cancer. I learned how her personal struggle to find answers and understand her treatment options following her 1994 diagnosis spawned not only the annual walk, but the hope and care options now available to western Massachusetts women. For the past three years, PRIME has been acknowledging this crusade by donation a portion of our October advertising sales to help support the work of the breast cancer centers and both Baystate and Mercy medical centers. This month, our feature also highlights a local woman who epitomizes the PRIME philosophy of healthy aging. Beth Wadden of East Longmeadow is not only still pursuing a career she loves at 73 – that of a special reading teacher helping students in grades 3 and 4 discover the power of truly understanding the written word – she's carved out a second career for herself as a well-loved and respected yoga instructor. "She is probably one of our most playful and creative yoga teachers," Wadden's daughter, Sheila Magalhaes, co-director of East Longmeadow's Heartsong Yoga studio, remarked. "Her joyfulness and playfulness in teaching children shines through when she teaches yoga. "One other thing she can do that no [other instructor] can, she can remember every single person in the room," Magalhaes added, a part of her teacher's personality that again shines through. A conscious instructor who crafts a lesson plan for each class, Magalhaes suggested her mother might some day be able to write a book, titled "Good Enough Yoga." Wadden herself credits the practice of yoga with keeping her young, vibrant and able to keep up with the pace of full-time teaching at a time when most educators have already entered retirement. She also credits her yoga students with helping her to feel more connected to the community where she lives and teaches the practice. "It's so healthy, so beneficial, so good for mind and spirit," Wadden said of practicing of yoga together in a group. 'It's not like coming together at a pub, or even at the gym." An apology Sometimes, the hardest part of the job I do is making certain you tell everyone's story right. No matter how hard you try as a writer, there are times when a subject believes you've left out something from a story that was important. Ann V Polesny, one of the three producers of the documentary, "Turning Pages," featured in the September issue of PRIME, dropped me a note recently, expressing dismay that I hadn't more clearly highlighted her work as an interviewer on the film. In attempting to give readers a sense of how the initial work had been divided up between the three producers, I had mentioned her organizational talent in overseeing the selection and location of classmates and travel to the interviews, and in insisting that the film, which started out as a high school reunion project, had the potential to become something more significant. Polesny pointed out that I had not mentioned how she had also been tapped to conduct many of the interviews, as her "from the heart" style seemed to put many former classmates at ease more that seasoned interviewer Donald Wilcox's "straight for the jugular style" of questioning. I apologize to Polesny for not making this contribution to the final work more evident to readers. Those who would like to see the film – which documents the stories of 25 classmates form the 1962 graduating class of Niskayuna High School in Schenectady. N.Y., can catch it on Oct. 13 at 2 p.m. at the Academy of Music in Northampton as part of the Northampton International Film Festival. for themselves